Molly Kilete, Abuja
The police force headquarters in Abuja, on Thursday, paraded four suspects for exam malpractices committed in the just concluded West African Senior School Certificate Examination Council (WASSCE).
Interestingly three of the suspects are teachers and staff of various secondary schools in Anambra and Imo states.
Those arrested were Ibuokanma Darlington, 36, Ernest Kelechì, 33, Godstime Onuoha and Uche Chukwuma, Darlington, 17.
The suspects were said to be in possession of WASSCE questions papers on their mobile phones which they sent to WhatsApp platforms of students at the time of their arrest.
They were arrested at the examination centre where they were posted as supervisors.
The suspects who were all graduates, however, denied distributing the exams question papers to students on their WhatsApp platforms.
Parading the suspects before newsmen, Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said the suspects who were supposed to be role models to their students were arrested by police operatives from the Cybercrime unit of the force in conjunction with officials of WAEC).
The force PRO, who said the police Cybercrime unit was being upgraded to address the challenges arising from the use of the internet to perpetrate crime, said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.
The suspects during an interview with newsmen admitted to have had the question papers on their mobile phones but denied that they leaked the questions to students.
One of the suspects, Darlington said: “What happened was that I belong to the WhatsApp group of some of my students and the question paper on my phone was actually the one the students wrote the previous day which I usually teach them and know where they did well or not.
Also speaking, the WAEC director in charge of Administration, Yusuf Ari, while noting that malpractice has been the biggest challenge of the organisation, said the authorities were doing everything in their powers to give credence to the results issued to candidates.
To curb the menace, he said: “We have developed a mechanism to detect leaked question papers sent to social media platforms and arrest those who are the main actors.”