Police on Thursday said they had arrested four suspects, including a minor, over alleged malpractice in the 2019 May/June examination conducted by West African Examination Council  (WAEC).

The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba, told newsmen in Abuja that the suspects were teachers, and gave their names as Darlington Ibuokanma, 36; Earnest Kelechi, 33; Godstime Onuoha, 35 and a minor, Uche Chukwuma, 17.

Mba said that the suspects were arrested and investigated for their roles in the facilitation of examination malpractices in the examination.

According to him, the suspects were caught transmitting answers to questions of various subjects in the examination through the use of smart phones.

The spokesman said that the style of malpractice adopted by the suspects reflected some of the challenges associated with the growing use of the social media.

“We find this very disturbing because teachers are supposed to help in nurturing students and be custodians of the highest level of ethics in the educational system.

“They are supposed to play lead role in making sure that persons who are issued certificates are indeed deserving of the honour that goes with it,” he said.

He, however, stated that the Police had evolved new measures for monitoring students as well as invigilators and supervisors during external examinations.

Mba said that the idea was to ensure that examination malpractices were reduced to its minimum to restore the integrity of certificates issued by examination bodies.

He said the suspects would be charged to court appropriately for “diligent prosecution’’.

On his part, Mr Yusuf Ari, Director of Administration, Nigeria National Office of WAEC, commended the police for the proactive and close collaboration with the examination body.

He said that the major challenge of examination bodies across the world was malpractice which undermined the integrity of certificates issued by the organisations.

According to Art, if the integrity of examinations is compromised, the certificates issued to candidates that sat for the examination cannot be guaranteed.

He said that WAEC had taken steps ahead of persons engage in examination malpractice as the malpractices “have gone digital with the advent of mobile phone’’. (NAN)