Some candidates of the National Examination Council, who could not write some papers due to the recent Plateau killings in the state have pleaded with the council to re-conduct the examinations. The candidates, who are taking shelter in Internally Displaced Persons camps in the state, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday, July 19, that the attacks prevented them from writing the NECO Basic Education Certificate Examination and the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. NAN reports that more than 11 communities in Jos South, Riyom, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas were affected in the recent attacks. A BECE candidate, 14-year-old Ezra Danjuma said he missed three papers because his school, Government Secondary School, Exland in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area was among the schools closed down because of the recent attacks.

“I registered for 10 subjects but could not write three papers because we had to run away from our community when the Fulani herdsmen attacked us, my father was killed in the process,” he said. Ezra, the second child of five children said that he paid N3,500 for the exams and expressed worry that his mother might not be able to finance the exams as a widow, in addition to the school fees of his other four siblings.

NAN reports that at the Church of Christ in Nations IDP camp in Heipang, Barkin Ladi, 11 SSCE candidates did not write all the papers they registered for and pleaded with the examination body to re-conduct the papers. Bayat Yohana, a 16-year-old candidate said many of his classmates have lost a parent or both in the attacks and did not have the resources to re-register for the exams next year, “we paid N34,000 for the exams, most of us cannot pay again next year,“ he said. NAN reports that candidates in Barkin Ladi LGA did not write literature, geography, agric science, computer science, animal husbandry, additional mathematics and data processing and marketing.

The Plateau commissioner for Secondary education, Jude Dakur, said that a formal complaint was made to NECO on the issue and the council had directed them to collate the list of the candidates and the subjects they missed for possible consideration. He said 13 public schools in Barkin Ladi local government were shut down, while statistics in the other affected areas were still being collated. Meanwhile, officials of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) in Plateau state arrested seven additional persons in connection to the June 23 attacks in Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government areas, it is confirmed.

Our reporter gathered that Brig.-Gen. John Agie, the acting director of defence information, who paraded the suspects on Tuesday, July 17, at the command headquarters in Jos, said: “I came in from Abuja today in continuation of our intelligence gathering and intensive investigation over what happened last month.”

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Plateau IDPs miss exam due to attacks, beg NECO to reschedule