WAEC: Gov Emmanuel swiftly clears Akpabio’s debt, saves A’Ibom from embarrassment

By Nse Peter

Akwa Ibom State shamefully stood out among the 19 states of the federation that reportedly owed the West African Examination Council (WAEC) about N4billion examination registration fees, until the state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel rushed to secretly pay off the backlog of debt, Thursday.

The debt, insiders in Government House, Uyo, say was more than N700million, was incurred by the immediate past administration of Mr. Godswill Akpabio.

The leadership of WAEC and some top federal educators in the country were worried about how a state as rich as Akwa Ibom could be owing examination registration fees.

“The WAEC, during the week, threatened to withhold results of candidates from 19 out of the 36 states of the federation over the non-payment of N4bn examination registration fees by the state governments to the body. However, investigations by Saturday PUNCH shared that one of the debtor states, Akwa Ibom, had paid its debt on Thursday, bringing the number of states owing WAEC down to 18,” says a news report published in the Saturday Punch.

“Watch out, you won’t hear them (Akwa Ibom State government) celebrate this one (payment of money to WAEC) because they know how embarrassing it is to owe such money in the first place,” one social commentator in Uyo told Think Akwa Ibom!