THE Senate at the plenary on Wednesday resolved to investigate former registrars of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board over low remittances during their administration of the board.

The probe will also be extended to the National Examinations Council and the West African Examination Council.

WAEC is an international examination body for the West African sub-region.

The move was based on a point of order raised by Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi-West), who said JAMB’s revenue had skyrocketed under a new administration and asked that NECO and WAEC, with larger structure, be probed on their remittances.

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, had succeeded Prof. Dibu Ojerinde as Registrar of JAMB.

Melaye said, “I want to bring to the attention of the Senate that it has been declared that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board made internally generated revenue of N5bn in 2016 and they improved on that in 2017 by generating N7bn.

“Before then, remittance from JAMB to the Federation Account used to be (between) N500m to N700m.

“I am bringing it to the attention of the Senate that since JAMB has showed that it could remit N7bn, then we can encourage our relevant committees to work on NECO and WAEC that have wider financial statuses.

“WAEC and NECO have more people writing their exams than JAMB.

“We can make more money as a people and as a country if there is proper oversight and if the corruption pipes in those two places are blocked.

“My intention is to bring this to the attention of the Senate, and the presiding officer can ask the relevant committee to please take this up.”

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, in his remarks, asked Chairman of the Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), Senator Aliyu Wamakko, to educate the lawmakers next week on the examination bodies and their revenues. – Punch

– Jan.  31, 2018 @ 18:19 GMT