Lawmakers of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, ordered security operatives to detain four officials of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
This happened after the WAEC officials failed to answer some of the questions raised by the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Examination Bodies, during an investigative hearing at the National Assembly complex.
The officials are Amos Josiah Dangut, Head of National Office, WAEC Nigeria, who represented the Registrar; Angus Okeleze, Senior Deputy Registrar; Victor Odu, Acting Director of Finance and Segun Jerumeh, Deputy Director of Finance.
Trouble started for the officials when the committee members became infuriated after the WAEC officials failed to answer questions bordering on accountability to their satisfaction.
Piqued by the attitude of the officials, the lawmakers entered a heated argument demanding whether the examination body was accountable to the parliament or not.
Mr Dangut in his presentation to the committee stated that WAEC was not an agency of government and therefore is not accountable to the parliament.
However, the lawmakers insisted that WAEC Nigeria was a creation of an Act of the National Assembly and should account for all its activities to them.
The committee also pointed out that the National Assembly makes appropriations for WAEC and that the examination body’s convention dictates that it must submit to the legislation of any of its member countries.
Following this, a member of the committee, Uchenna Okonkwo, moved a motion for the officials to be taken into custody.
Mr Okonkwo said, “I will like to move a motion that while pending the investigation to look into the activities of WAEC Nigeria, the invited guest before us should be taken into custody.
“They should be held at the police post while we seek for solutions for these issues, they are bringing upon Nigerians.”
The motion was further seconded by Marie Ebikake.
More arguments during the investigative hearing
However, pissed by the decision of the committee, one of the WAEC officials began shouting at the members of the panel for being unfair to them.
While the shouting was ongoing, the officials were taken away by members of the Sergeant at Arms of the National Assembly and detained in one of the offices for about 15 minutes.
Subsequently, after a closed-door session, the committee resolved to allow them to go and return on a later date with all the relevant documents requested from them.
In addition, the chairman of the committee, Oforji Oboku, said they must bring the audited statement of accounts of the examination body from 2018 untill 2024.
He also directed that the officials ensure they present relevant documents with respect to a N5 billion loan that WAEC accessed in 2022 to buy a custom-made calculator among others.
According to the chairman, WAEC could not operate outside the supervision of the National Assembly.
Oboku said, “You are not different from any other agency by saying you are not an agency of government. We are not here to witch-hunt you. WAEC is subject to Nigeria’s laws.
“We have reviewed the position and we have all the powers to oversight you. You cannot come here and say WAEC is not an agency of government.”
He also stated that the WAEC and its officials would be invited at a later date and failure to produce the required documents would attract sanctions.
