OGUGU SCHOOL SSCE (LAGOS) RESULTS CANCELLED, AFTER 4 YEARS.

•Affected undergraduates’ fate unknown In 2008, Sulaiman Ismail, now 23, was one of about 200 candidates that Ogudu Senior Grammar School, Ogudu, GRA, Ojota, Lagos, presented for the May/June Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West African ExaminationCouncil (WAEC). When theexamination body released the results in September same year, the candidate, with examination number 4251410254 was one of the few who recorded average performance. Details of his results are as follows: English Language- C6; Mathematics- B2; Agricultural Science- B3; Biology- C5; Chemistry- C4; Physics- C4; Economics- D7; Geography-D7 while absent was recorded against Government. In 2009, Ismail wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and scored 213. He subsequently scored 80 per cent in the Post-UTME conducted by the University of Ilorin in Kwara State, his preferreduniversity, where he was eventually admitted to study Computer Science. He is not only four years into his studies, he is already preparing for his graduation when the unexpected happens. As part of the prerequisites for graduation, he appeared at relevant university’s departments for clearance. At the Examination and Records Department, he was asked to prove the authenticity of the SSCE result he earlier presented and upon which he was offered admission. Innocently, Ismail supplied the detailed information to verify the ownership and that was when he received the shocker of his life. “We logged on to WAEC’s website and rather than displaying my grades against each subject that I registered, all I could see was “cancelled” against every subject except Government which I did not write andthey put ABS, which means absent. And it waslike a dream to me at that point and even till now,” Ismail explained. In his confused state, Ismail, a First Class material with current Cumulative Gradient Point (GPA) of 4.64, left Ilorin for Lagos on Thursday, February 14, and headed straight to his school to enquire about the situation. “When I got to the school, I met the new principal, Mr. Benedict and his deputy, Mrs. Adeniran, who told me they were also shocked to receive the news from some of my mates with similar experience. When I probed further, I was only directed to the father of one of my mates, who they claimed had better information on the matter,” the astonished student narrated further. He wentto meet his mate’s father,Mr. Owoyemi Moses, who told him that his son, Oluwatosin Owoyemi, was also affected by the development. But unlike Ismail, the boy was in 200-level at Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti when he discovered there was a problem with his WAEC result. Oluwatosin wasn’t at home when National Mirror visited, but his father said the trouble started in April 2012 when his son was processing his course registration as a 200-level student and discovered that his results earlier released byWAEC had been cancelled. “The boy was weeping when he told me and I could not believe my earsbecause he had checked same result on WAEC website and printed it four years earlier. We also got a statement of result from the school and the portion of a copyof the master sheet from WAEC that contains his details. So, how come almost four years after that he went online again to discover that, hisresults had been cancelled? “I pacified himand asked him to return to Lagos so that we couldfind out what was amiss. When we got to the school, I was surprised that they were not even aware of the development. We were only told that the students had been coming for their certificates and that they had written officially to WAEC to know why the certificates were yet to be released three years after exam,” Owoyemi narrated. One of the school teachers, simply identified as Mr. Solanke, volunteered to follow Oluwatosin and his fatherto Ikorodu office of WAEC,which controls Ojodu area. There, they met with the officer in charge,Mr. Olu Adekeye. A letter of complaint had earlier been sent to the office by the school. “But surprisingly, the officer incharge told us he had no knowledge of any letter from the school concerning the matter and addressed to his office. At that point, he got to know that the letter was received by a subordinate, Mr. Okonkwo, but who neverpassed it to the relevant office for action,” Owoyemi alleged. The matter later took thecomplainants to the Ikejaoffice of WAEC, from where the officer in charge of the office, simply identified as Mrs. Agwu wrote officially to the Nigeria’s head office of the council at Yaba for action. While these were on, the school claimed it had informed the affected students that WAEC had responded to letter sent earlier and that the council complained of having problem in embossing on their certificates what they called blur photographs they provided during registration and that it would require replacements.