By Uzor Odigbo
Massive examination malpractices have been recorded as high marks were obtained by officers that sat for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) promotion exams in Northern Centres of Kaduna and Bauchi states.
A source alerted TheNiche of massive malpractices and leakage of examination papers at the Northern Centres.
The source who wants his name protected alleged that Kaduna and Bauchi Centres were allowed to engage in unfair practices and thereby inflating their scores.
The source also revealed that correct answer options were deliberately set as ‘A’ for all questions ( 1-70) in the Northern Centres, allowing candidates to score 69 marks simply by selecting option ‘A’.
The source said, “Allegations of examination malpractices have surfaced, suggesting that Kaduna and Bauchi centers were allowed to engage in unfair practices, thereby inflating their scores. This is in direct contravention of the service’s commitment to conduct impartial and transparent promotion exams, as sworn in the oath against malpractices. Conversely, centers in the southern zones, including Lagos and Port Harcourt, diligently followed the prescribed rules and regulations, ensuring the exam’s integrity was maintained.
“Furthermore, it’s alleged that the correct answer option was deliberately set as ‘A’ for all questions (1-70) in the Northern centers, allowing candidates to automatically score 69 marks simply by selecting option ‘A’ for every question. This blatant manipulation is a clear violation of the exam’s integrity and raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the results,” the source said.
He added that officers who sat for the promotion Examination in the Northern Centres at Kaduna State score highest marks of 69% and above.
Another source also alluded that the two centres namely, Queen Amina College Kakuri in Kaduna and Sarduana Memorial College also in Kaduna gave over 300 officers pass marks of 60% and above, while most officers who sat for the same Exams in the West recorded very poor marks, making the Northern candidates highest scorers .
The source maintained that most of the highest scores were recorded by officers in the Superintendent cadres of Superintendent of Customs ( SC) and Chief Superintendent of Customs ( CSC).
With the highest candidates recording highest scores in the Northern Centres more than the Western candidates, there are fears in the Service if officers with highest scores in the Northern Centres are promoted as promised by the CGC, Adewale Adeniyi.
It could be recalled that the CGC Bashir Adeniyi promised that the Service will not compromise merit during the kick-off of the NCS promotions Examination few weeks ago.
Most irate officers have call on the CGC to institute an enquiry to unravel theses alleged exams malpractices and bring culprits to book.