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High Court orders WAEC to release withheld WASSCE results

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The High Court has ordered the West African Examination Council to release the withheld results of candidates who sat the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination in 2024 immediately.

The court held that the examination body failed to state the alleged malpractices or examination irregularities indulged in by the students.

On Thursday, January 30, four students representing ten thousand five hundred and twenty whose results were withheld filed an application seeking the court to order WAEC to release their results.

Lawyer for the applicants, Martin Kpebu argued that the action of the examination body infringed on the rights of the students since WAEC failed to explicitly indicate the reason for withholding the results.

He noted that by failing to release the results, many students have been deprived the opportunity to go to school since a number of tertiary institutions have closed their admission portals.

“Further bad faith by WAEC is exhibited in DA4 where they state that the results were withheld due to alleged involvement in exam irregularities. It shows the respondent approbating and reprobating.

“In exhibit DA7 they say it’s malpractice and the same is represented on the results page but when it gets to DA4 respondent says they’re involved in alleged exam irregularities.

“When one looks at Exhibit DA2, respondent simply says on page 1 that these are rules and regulations for dealing with cases of irregularities but in that Exhibit DA2 there’s no comprehensive definition of irregularities. Indeed, one always finds examples of irregularities.

“Consequently, it’s our submission that this failure to pin applicants to a specific irregularity is a grave violation of the rights of the applicants as earlier submitted. Similarly, there’s no comprehensive definition of malpractice in Exhibit DA2 so once again applicants are left groping in the dark as to exactly what they’ve done wrong notwithstanding all the protection applicants and 10,560 others have been afforded in the constitution.

“The right to a fair trial is inalienable so applicants acquired it by birth so that right predates the constitution 1992.
“That’s why the constitution says those rights are guaranteed. They can’t be toyed with by the respondents just like that,” Kpebu explained to Justice Abature.

Kpebu further disclosed to the court that the Examination Council had invited the lawyers and the students for a meeting on the alleged malpractice but failed to state which offences in the invitation letter.

Counsel for WAEC, Melisa Amarteyfio vehemently opposed the application. She indicated that WAEC was not responsible for releasing results which had been withheld pending investigations.

She added that an unsigned letter written by the applicants listing all affected students was delivered to the Council on January 9 but did not give the body time to respond and filed their suit at the court.

She prayed for their application to be dismissed since it was premature and preemptive.

“It’s evident that WAEC has always timeously tried to meet the student’s request. In Exh DA7 WAEC expressly indicated that these results had been withheld due to alleged exam malpractice.

On September 26, 2024, WAEC had notified the general public that there had been exam irregularities at the different schools and had listed the Specific infractions it had noticed and had also indicated that the Council will take appropriate action. WAEC went even further to publish a notice in the Daily Graphic (Exhibit DA4) inviting students who had allegedly involved in exam malpractice to log onto their website for further details,” Melisa noted to the court.

“This investigation is an administrative process which is ongoing and takes a bit of time due to the large volume of students allegedly involved,” she added.

Ruling on the matter, Justice Ali Baba Abature highlighted that WAEC failed to indicate what offenses the students committed leading to the withholding of their results and should have done so.

He therefore granted the application and ordered the examination body to release the results with immediate effect.

In a related development, WAEC has encouraged parents and guardians to cooperate with the Council as they continue to investigate students whose results have been withheld due to examination malpractices.

In a statement dated January 30, and signed by Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, the Council noted that it was at the concluding stage of the investigations which required the students to submit written statements in response to the allegations of malpractices levelled against them.

It noted that the students were being given a fair hearing and dismissed reports of coercion of the students to write the statements.

With the present orders of the court, WAEC will be expected to release the results of these students.


Source3news 30th January 2025 3:19 PM

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