By Mary BASSEY, Staff Investigator, Lagos.
POLICE crack detectives attached to the Rapid Response Squad, RRS have uncovered a syndicate which specialized in hacking into the website of the West Africa Examination Council WAEC, get its examination question papers, solve them and sell to willing and ready candidates for unspecified amount of money. Investigation by CrimeWorld indicated that the syndicate which is made up of a teacher and an undergraduate student of a tertiary institution both in the South-western Nigeria and some artisans were said to have created websites and WhatsApp platforms through which they perpetrated the crime. Parading the four suspects before newsmen Friday, at the Police Command Headquarters Ikeja Lagos Commissioner of Police CP Imohimi Edgal who described the crime as national embarrassment called on examination bodies to tighten the noose around their documents and documentation with a view to checkmating leakages. The Police boss also urged parents to keep an eye on the activities of their wards and encourage them to earn a living by working hard adding that there was no shortcut to success in life. Edgal said, “What I want to talk about is of great national interest because it touches on national interest where WAEC questions and answers have been hijacked by syndicates who sell them to members of the public and make huge amount of money from it. They give these examination questions papers to candidates already prepared questions and answers ahead of examinations. This was the intelligence reports that got to the headquarters and based on this, I tasked the decoy team of the RRS to ensure that they infiltrate this group and of course, arrest these national saboteurs. Investigations have revealed that these atrocities were committed through the following websites and WhatsApps platforms thus: www.cwho.net with number 07069198008, www.examloaded.com with 08162563540, www.guruscam.com with number 0813287664 and of course, finally www.expotab.co with 09039642826. Four suspects were tracked and arrested in Edo, Osun and Ondo States respectively in connection with the crime. The suspects are Samuel Kayoed 28, Adebayo Ifeoluwa 17, Alayande Ahmed 16, Olusode Festus 20. Some others have been tracked to Ghana and we working with Interpol to track them down. Giving a breakdown on how the syndicate operated and their level of culpability, CP Edgal said, “The breakdown of this national embarrassment is as follows: Kayode Samuel is a Physics and Mathematics Teacher in a school in Ondo State, he linked up with two others who got him the leaked 2018 examination papers. He created a WhatsApp group called WAECVIP where he shares and sells leaked expo answers on request. Adeboayo Ifeoluwa a student of Federal University Technology Akure FUTA Akure, Ondo State also created WhatsAppMcc where he shares leaked expos questions and answers. Olusode Festus 20, an Iron bender apprentice who resides in Ekpan, Edo State; he created two WhatsApp groups named WAECgroup of expo and WAECVIP where he shares questions and answers to students. Alayande Ahmed who is undergoing training on the repairs of damaged phones, was also linked to the crime, he got expos from other groups he belongs to and shares to students. We discovered that questions papers given by these syndicates are words for words with the one provided by WAEC for its candidates. The four suspects confessed to the crime and evidences of their involvements were further corroborated thorough their mobile phones. Of course, we have transmitted a letter to WAEC to visit the command headquarters so that we can jointly work together to get to the bottom of this national embarrassment and to ensure that there is no repeat.” The Police boss therefore, wants parents to keep an eye on the activities of the wards saying, “Parents, Guardians and Tutors must monitor their wards and ensure that they do not engage in examination malpractices and any other anti-social vices for that matter; they should rather encourage them to face their studies and do genuine things as there is no shortcut to success. It is also important as I said earlier, for concerned examination bodies to look into this development and put in necessary corrective measure to prevent such leakages in future. I have with me 32 WhatsApp groups where question papers and answers are sent through, we are currently investigating these groups, all our platforms have been activated and as we expand this investigation, we will keep Lagos and indeed Nigerians briefed through the press.”