The Initiative for School Excellence and Education Foundation has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), threatening legal action over concerns about the integrity of the 2026 computer-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) results. The group, through its lawyers at Zuriel Law Practice, sent a formal letter dated August 14, 2026, to the Head of WAEC's Nigeria National Office in Lagos.
Legal Threat and Demands
The letter, signed by Chinwe Onubogu, Principal Partner of the firm, was shared publicly on Friday by Alex Onyia, who identifies as the Chief Executive Officer of EDU Care on X. Onyia had earlier been among those who raised questions about the results after they were released. "We have now taken legal action against WAEC. WAEC has 14 days to respond and take appropriate action, failing which we will proceed with litigation," he wrote.
The group said it had received complaints from a large number of candidates who raised questions about the "accuracy, reliability and verifiability" of their results. It is asking WAEC to preserve all electronic and documentary records linked to the examination, including candidate response databases, system audit trails, server logs, scoring databases, and reports on any technical incidents that occurred during the exam.
Access to Records and Independent Review
The foundation also wants affected candidates to gain access to their individual electronic records, including recorded responses, scores, and details showing how final grades were calculated. It further requested disclosure of any manual corrections or adjustments made to candidates' results after the fact.
Beyond record preservation, the group is pushing for an independent verification exercise involving experts in both educational assessment and information technology. The letter said the exercise would be aimed at determining whether the computer-based examination platform and result-processing system "operated accurately and consistently," not at overriding WAEC's academic judgement.
WAEC's Response and Results Statistics
The legal threat arrived a day after WAEC issued a statement defending its results. The council said it had noticed a "recent wave of public commentary" on social media questioning the accuracy of the results and urged the public to avoid relying on unverified claims. WAEC added that every candidate's script goes through a multi-tiered marking, moderation, and auditing process overseen by subject experts.
WAEC released the 2026 WASSCE results on August 5, with Head of National Office Amos Dangut announcing them at a Lagos press briefing. Out of 1,950,726 candidates who sat the examination, results were fully processed for 1,834,695, representing 94.05 per cent. A total of 1,200,514 candidates, or 61.54 per cent, obtained credits in at least five subjects including English Language and Mathematics. The results of 167,486 candidates were withheld over alleged examination malpractices.
Government Measures Against Malpractice
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the federal government has rolled out fresh measures aimed at tackling examination malpractice in the Senior School Certificate Examination, a key requirement for admission into tertiary institutions across the country. The new steps apply to examinations conducted by the West African Examination Council, the National Examination Council and the National Business and Technical Examinations Board.
