The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has firmly denied allegations that question papers leaked during the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), attributing the controversy surrounding the results to individuals and platforms that previously profited from examination fraud. Amos Dangut, head of WAEC's Nigerian office, made this assertion on Thursday, September 3, 2026, during a monthly dialogue organized by the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN), themed "One-on-One with WAEC HNO: Addressing Concerns over WASSCE Results, Other Matters."
WAEC Releases 2026 WASSCE Results Amid Criticism
WAEC announced the release of the 2026 WASSCE School Candidates' results on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, via its official X handle. Approximately 1.96 million candidates from over 24,200 secondary schools across Nigeria sat for the examination this year. However, some school owners and stakeholders have questioned the published results, arguing that many candidates performed below their known academic level.
Dangut stated unequivocally that no question paper was leaked and that technical problems did not affect either the conduct or the results of the examination. He attributed part of the controversy to those who benefited from examination fraud, noting that the council's new measures, including computer-based testing, randomisation, and serialisation of question papers, have made it significantly harder to cheat.
Malpractice Rates Decline, Fraudsters Angered
"This very year, 2026, I can confidently tell the whole world that the WAEC examination did not leak," Dangut said. He added that the rate of examination malpractice fell from 9.7 per cent in 2025 to 8.59 per cent in 2026, a drop of 1.1 percentage points. This decline, he said, has hurt individuals and platforms that previously made money from examination fraud.
"The cyber rogue websites, cyber cafes that engage in fraudulent activities or malpractice, they did not thrive. So they were angered," Dangut explained. "They are part of the aggrieved people that are also fuelling this unnecessary controversy." He also acknowledged that the tighter environment would naturally affect the scores of candidates who previously relied on malpractice to pass. "Because many people who have been used to thriving well, doing well in an environment that allows growth of malpractice will not have that opportunity again," he said.
Registration Delays and Insecurity Disrupted Exams
Beyond malpractice concerns, Dangut cited late school registrations as a significant logistical problem. Schools that were supposed to complete registration by December 2025 did not finish the process until April 2026, forcing WAEC to begin printing examination materials only after the examination had already started. "It was when the examination actually started that WAEC had to now go to the press to start printing," he said. He added that the Federal Minister of Education had to intervene before schools complied with registration requirements.
Insecurity also played a role. Dangut said a nationwide protest in May over the kidnapping of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State caused supervisors to abandon their posts on at least one examination day. "On that very day, the supervisors had down tools. They said they were not going to hold the exam. And before we could salvage the situation, it was late for some of the schools," he said. Dangut warned that unless stakeholders adapted to WAEC's new systems, "we will continue to have issues which are surmountable."
JAMB and WAEC Introduce One-Time Verification Fee
In a related development, Legit.ng reported that JAMB and WAEC jointly announced a new arrangement requiring candidates to pay N4,000 only once to verify their WASSCE results. Under the new policy, tertiary institutions must use verified results supplied by JAMB and cannot demand additional verification payments from candidates. The two bodies said candidates can complete the verification process from home through the JAMB Verification Service platform.
