The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Examination Bodies on Tuesday, briefly detained officials of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in the National Assembly complex following a probe.
The four officials detained were: Head of National Office, WAEC Nigeria, Amos Dangut, who represented the Registrar; Senior Deputy Registrar, Angus Okeleze; Acting Director of Finance, Victor Odu and Deputy Director of Finance, Segun Jerumeh.
The decision of the committee was sequel to a motion moved by a member of the Committee, Honourable Uchenna Okonkwo during an investigative hearing.
WAEC boss, Dangut had during his presentation stated categorically that the examination body was not an agency of government, and therefore not accountable to the parliament like other agencies.
However, the lawmakers insisted that WAEC Nigeria was a creation of an Act of the National Assembly, hence must account for all its activities to them.
Following the heated arguments, Okonkwo moved the motion that the WAEC officials be detained.
“I would like to move a motion that while pending the investigation to look into the activities of WAEC Nigeria, the invited guest before it should be taken into custody and held at the police post while we seek solutions for these issues they are bringing upon Nigerians,” he said.
Despite protest by WAEC officials, they were taken away by members of the Sergeant at Arms of the National Assembly where they were detained in one of the offices for about 15 minutes.
The committee subsequently held a brief closed door session, where it was resolved to allow them to go and come back at a later date with relevant documents demanded of them.