The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has claimed that secondary school principals and invigilators collaborate to help candidates cheat during exams.

This was contained in a statement issued by WAEC on Monday, in response to media reports that question papers of the ongoing 2018 exams had been leaked to candidates prior to their exam dates.

WAEC explained that what happened was not the leaking of question papers but rather an active collaboration between heads of some secondary schools and the invigilators that were sent to conduct the exams.

“Our monitoring and investigations of the ongoing examination have established the fact that certain school Principals, invigilators, supervisors and candidates who had succeeded in smuggling mobile phones and other electronic devices into the examination hall, snap the question papers after the examination must have commenced and forward to their criminal collaborators who in turn provide solutions to the questions and send to their subscribers via rogue websites, sms, WhatsApp and other social media,” the statement read.

“The question papers for the ongoing WASSCE for school candidates 2018 did not leak as has been erroneously portrayed in the media.

“Leakage can be said to have occurred when the question papers get into hands of individuals who are not supposed to have them before the time scheduled on the timetable.

“Without any iota of doubt, the Council wishes to state that no case of leakage has been established since the beginning of the examination.”

Reports say four persons were arrested by the police after the alleged selling of WAEC question papers went viral on social media.

WAEC maintained that the integrity of the ongoing WASSCE (West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination) has not been compromised, explaining that what happened were cases of fraudsters who do ‘photoshop’ of question papers of previous examinations and sell them to gullible candidates.

“In addition, in several cases during our monitoring and investigations, it was discovered that question papers of previous examinations were photoshopped by this despicable elements to scam gullible candidates who patronize their rogue websites and WhatsApp platforms.” It said

The Council said it has the capability and capacity to detect and punish candidates who must have benefited from the fraudulent activities of the operators of rogue websites and WhatsApp platforms.

It commended the efforts of the security agencies, particularly, the Nigeria Police which have been collaborating with it in the fight against examination malpractice.