25 PEOPLE RETURN CERTIFICATES

25 born again Christians return WAEC certificates

NO fewer than 25 former candidates who sat for either the school or privates examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and are born again Christians have returned their certificate claiming it was acquired through fraudulent means.
Sunday Sun learnt that the affected born again former candidates in obeying the Christian doctrine of seeking for restitution, approached WAEC, through letters and personal visits to the council, seeking for restitution after they had confessed how they acquired their certificates when they wrote the examinations at various periods.
A senior staff of WAEC disclosed that the council wrote to the candidates explaining what they were ex-­
pected to do which is to return the certificates in accordance with the rules and regulations guiding the conduct of the examinations.
Investigations revealed that those who complied with the directive returned their certificates  to various WAEC offices nationa wide, and the council took their cases to the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which met recently in Lagos and cancelled the returned 25 certificates.
The one-­page WAEC document revealed that the returned certificates by the born  again Christians are for both the May/June (school exam) and November/December
(private candidates) West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Breakdown of the year
the examinations were taken revealed that the oldest certificates dates back to June 1980 with certificates dated 1986 for Nov/Dec with certificates  nos  NGPO497232 and NGO 442267 and three obtained in 1989,
all for school examinations with certificates  nos NGPO 1004584, NGPO 823128 and NGO 1002145.
In the1993 Nov/Dec exam, two candidates sought restitution and returned their certificates, while 1994, 1997,1999, 2000, 2006, 2008,and 2009, one person each returned their certificates. In 2001, three did so, in 2003 (two), 2004 (three) and in the May/June school examinations, two candidates returned their certificates
Seventeen of former WAEC candidates that returned their certificates wrote the May/June West African Senior School Certificate  Examinations (WASSCE) and eight sat for the Nov/Dec WASSCE.
A former principal and now proprietor of Royal Academy International, Oshodi, Mr. Olatunji Ogunmode, commended the candidates for seeking restitution after many years of acquiring the certificates, and urged several others to obey the Biblical command. Ogunmode warned other candidates in future
WAEC exams to stay clear of examination malpractices, noting that if they were not caught in the classroom for
exam fraud, nemesis would certainly catch up with them, no matter how long it takes.
Pastor Miracle Wisdom said the 25 former WAEC candidates by returning the certificates  they acquired wrongly are obeying the Christian doctrine by seeking for restitution, and that no matter how long it took them
to come forward, their past sins are forgiven.
Wisdom was however silent on what happens to higher certificates the 25 candidates used the WAEC certificates to acquire, nothing “the most important thing is that they came forward to
admit how they passed their exams. It is a welcome development, it would make others
not to engage in exam fraud.’’
The pastor said there are several verses in the Bible to support restitution which conform to what the 25 born
again Christians did by confessing their sins and seeking for restitution from WAEC. John 1:9 says ‘’If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’’.
While Number 5:6-­7 says ’’When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking
faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has cconfess his sin that he has committed.[a] And he
shall make full restitution for his wrong.’’

Nigeria: Labour Shuts Jos Disco Over Unfavourable Working Conditions

 

Members of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, yesterday shut operations at all offices of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, JEDC Plc in the four states of Plateau, Benue, Bauchi and Gombe over alleged unfavourable working conditions among other things.

The aggrieved protesters stormed JEDC offices in the four states and prevented management and others from gaining access into the company's offices for business transactions.

In Jos, the unionists and others stormed the headquarters of the Company at Rwang Pam street, Jos as well as the office along Murtala Mohammed Way, as early as 6.30am barricaded the entrances and prevented Management and others from gaining entry into the offices. They displayed several placards with inscriptions such as "NUEE say no to sack of workers without justification, Enough is enough of customer exploitation, Disparity of salary is evil, Privatization is evil, reverse it." Speaking, the Assistant General Secretary of NUEE, North East Zone, Mr. Anthony Sule, said the protest was over the plight of workers in the company.

According to him, "We are protesting several wrongdoings of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company. They are maltreating workers, no condition of service, salary disparity which means they are paying different salaries to different workers based on their discretion. No salary scale, no public holiday, no leave for workers, no increment and they have made workers to sign a bond that they will collect a certain amount from customers' everyday even if there is no light.

"When the workers are not able to meet up, they are threatening to sack them, there is high-handedness and several wrongdoings being perpetrated that is why we have come out to protest. We have written several letters to the Management but they are not ready to meet us and listen to us. We gave them several ultimatums and they expired, nobody talked to us, seven more days were added, nothing happened. Even the security agencies intervened and asked them to talk to us but nothing happened, nobody is available to talk to us that is why we came out to tell the world what we are passing through."

Reacting, Head of Public Relation, JEDC, Hajiya Lubabatu Rabiu, in a statement said, "In line with the on-going protest by the National Union of Electricity Employee, (NUEE), JED wishes to state that talks with the NUEE has been on-going before now and we shall continue to dialogue with them to resolve all complaints."