Registrar of the examination body, Dantani Wushishi, disclosed this during the release of the results of the 2022 Internal Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations on Thursday in Minna.

“Niger State owes about N500m as they have currently reduced their outstanding debts. The state government has assured us that it will pay and clear off the debts,” Wushishi said.

He confirmed that the examination body is withholding the results of all students in the state as a result of the debt owed by the state government.

The registrar added that he had advised the state government to separate the names of candidates who were self-sponsored from those sponsored by the government to enable them to access their results.

He added, “We have requested from the state government to try and separate the names of those the state is sponsoring and those sponsored by their parents and guardians.

“Jigawa State cleared off its debts and paid for the registration of all its students this year. Kano State has one of the largest numbers of registered students. The state owed close to N1bn but this year they paid for the registration of all the candidates in the state and paid more than 70 per cent of the backlog it owed.”

Wushishi also revealed that the council recorded a decline in examination malpractices in the 2022 internal SSCE as compared to other years.

He said, “In the area of malpractices, 13,595 persons were caught as against 20,003 in the year 2021, which showed an appreciable decline in the number of malpractice cases.”

He said the council had zero tolerance for malpractice, adding that the council recommended the de-recognition of four schools for two years due to their involvement in mass cheating.

Wushishi further stated that supervisors, who were found wanting in their conduct during the examination, had been sanctioned.

He said, “29 supervisors were blacklisted for various offences ranging from poor supervision, insult, aiding and abetting during the examinations.”

The registrar gave the number of candidates that registered for the examinations as 1,209,703; while 1,198,412 sat for the examination.

He further stated that the number of candidates who got five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics is 727, 864; representing 60.74 per cent.

He added that the number of candidates with special needs is 1, 031 adding that 98 candidates are with albinism, 177 with autism, 574 with hearing impairments and 107 visually impaired.

Matane said the incident which occurred last week is being investigated, adding that the children were killed during a raid on the terrorists.

The incident occurred in the Kurebe community, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

When asked if six children were killed by a NAF fighter jet, Matane replied, “Yes, it occurred, the government is looking into the incident and an investigation is ongoing to ascertain what happened.”

According to the chairperson Coalition of Shiroro Associations, Salis Sambo, who spoke to our correspondent, the children got killed when the fighter jets tried to bomb some terrorists who ran into the community for safety.

He said the affected children were returning from the stream where they had gone to fetch water, adding that four of the children were members of the same family.

It was the terrorists that they were targeting. That week, there were about four airstrikes carried out in Shiroro and scores of terrorists were killed. The terrorists ran into the community to take refuge and when the explosives were shelled, it affected the children. It wasn’t deliberate,” he added

Sambo said that a man lost two of his daughters and two granddaughters in the incident.