Niger State House of Assembly has decried the continued withholding of the West Africa Examination Council result of its citizens over an outstanding debt of over N295m by the state government.
The government called on the executive arm to as a matter of urgency settle the debt to enable indigent students of the state obtain their results.
Mohammed Alhaji Haruna, a member representing Bida South Constituency on the floor of the House had raised the motion under the Matters of Urgent Public Importance alleging that most students of Niger State extraction whose WAEC fees were to be paid by the Niger State Government have been held to ransom owing to the inability of the state government to pay the balance of the examination fee.
He said out of the total sum of N345m debt, the state government paid the examination body N50m leaving a balance of N295, adding that efforts are on to pay another N50m.
He noted that if the results were not released by WAEC, the future of education of the students in the state hang in the balance.
“WAEC was paid the sum of N50 million out of the total sum of N345, 018,000.65k, leaving an outstanding balance of N295,018,000.65k, with further efforts being made by the Government to pay another N50 million soon”.
“Unless this hallowed chamber rises to the occasion and rescues these students who are our future leaders, their dreams of getting an education may be a mirage”.
Consequently, after deliberations on the matter, the members resolved that the state government should be called upon to immediately pay off the balance of all outstanding debts to WAEC for Niger State students to ensure their results are released.
They also called on the state Commissioner for Education to appear before the committee on Education for an interface on the matter.
