Ex-Chairman Reveals Govt Officials Withdrew N6bn from NECO Account

A former Chairman of the National Examination Council, Prof Abubakar Mohammed, says the government officials withdrew N6bn examination fees and had failed to account for it. According to him government officials are frustrating the exam body.

Prof. Mohammed spoke on Saturday at NECO’s first award ceremony in Minna, Niger State, which had in attendance educationists and policymakers.

He said, “The government, and especially some officials in the Ministry of Education, are out to sabotage the indigenous examination body. I do not owe anyone any apology for my statement, some government officials don’t want NECO to exist.

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“The officials first withdrew the N6bn found in the accounts of NECO. To date, the money has not been returned and nobody even bothered to inform us what they did with the money.”

According to him, the money was examination fees collected from candidates adding that it is still a mystery how we conducted the examinations.

The former chairman also disclosed that the Federal Government had not released even any subvention to NECO for the running of the organisation. Hesaid there was an agreement on how NECO and WAEC should rotate the conduct of their examinations but the government officials show preference for WAEC, making the regional body to permanently conduct its examinations between May and June.