By Adesina Wahab

The Registrar of the National Examinations Council, NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, has said some states in the federation are owing the body over N2 billion in examination fees and appealed to them to pay up for the body to have enough funds to prosecute its programmes.

He stated this in Lagos at the weekend while monitoring the conduct of the ongoing General Certificate of Education examinations for final year senior secondary school students in some centres.

According to him, some of the debts started accruing from 2012 and five states owed most of the debts.

Wushishi, however, did not mention the states involved, but expressed the hope that they would soon pay up.

“We need the money because the Federal Government only pays workers’ salaries and all other expenses are borne by the council. We need the support of all, including state governments for us to discharge our duties and mandate. We are not just present in Nigeria, we also conduct examinations in places like Togo, Niger, Benin and Equatorial Guinea.

“Our examinations are conducted in line with international best practices. We are happy about the conduct of the ongoing examination. We have been to Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and other places and things have been going on well,” he said.

On the peculiar issue of sit-at-home order in some states, the NECO boss said that had been taken care off in the schedule of things.

“Even those who were affected by such orders last year, we conducted make up exam for them and we are happy that such things are no longer happening now,” he stated.

Wushishi gave the assurance that the results of the ongoing exam would be released not later than 45 days after the conduct of the last paper.

“We are on top of the situation and we are giving the assurance that the results of the ongoing exam will be released not later than 45 days after the last paper. We have over 1.2 million candidates sitting for the exam,” he stated.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, for resolving the issue of Treasury Single Account, TSA, to give the body some independence.

Among the centres visited by the Registrar included Ilupeju Senior Grammar School, Oshodi, Agbayewa Memorial College, Ilupeju among others.