From Mathew Jwantu, Minna
Arising from the debt owed by Niger State Government, over 30,000 students from various public schools, missed post-UTME as NECO refused to released their results.
Investigation revealed that the development has led to their failure to attend post-UTME screenings of the universities of their choice.
Meanwhile, the State government has admitted that they are owing the examination body N470 million, adding that they have managed to pay N150 million.
Findings further have it that the students could not access their May/June SSCE results and are currently unable to, asking the government to intervene.
It would be recalled that the NECO May/June SSCE results were released on August 27, 2019.
When our Correspondent spoke to some of the affected students, they bemoaned their inability to access their results, so as to attend post UTME screenings of universities.
The Permanent Secretary of the Niger State Ministry of Education, Abubakar Aliyu, who spoke to Journalists, admitted that they are owning the examination body but appealed for consideration to enable the students access their results, especially those due for post UTME screenings.
The state government has been paying NECO and WAEC for its students from the previous government and the arrangement has always been that when the government has funds, we pay in installments.
“NECO is owed N400 million this year and the government has commenced the payment. Last week Friday, we remitted N150 million to them and we are still negotiating with them to release the result but they have not. Hopefully, they may release it today (Monday).”
Aliyu declared that the government does not have enough money to give to NECO at once but promised that they will pay whenever there are available funds.
Furthermore, he said: “For us, as a government, we do not have money to release at once but as a responsive government, we have a clear picture of what we want to do. Once we get money, we will make release to them. Within the availability of resources, we have given what we have and we will continue to give them what we have until we clear the accumulated debts.”
He, however, stated that if the results were not released before the end of Monday, “we will look for ways of sourcing for money to pay the debts. One of the Directors in the Ministry is still in a meeting with NECO.”
NECO Information Officer, Mallam Azeez Sani, who told our correspondent to sent text, did not replied as at the time of filing this report.
End