Viral list of 50 schools withheld in WASSCE? WAEC responds
WAEC has responded to a viral list claiming that 50 schools had their WASSCE results withheld. The council urges the public to verify information before sharing.
- WAEC declared as fake a letter circulating on social media that named 50 secondary schools with withheld 2026 WASSCE results
- The forged document bore WAEC's official letterhead and was falsely signed in the name of the Head of WAEC Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut
- The fake letter emerged hours after WAEC confirmed it genuinely withheld results of over 167,000 candidates for examination malpractice
Legit.ng
Yaba, Lagos state - The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has declared as fake a letter spreading on social media that purports to show a list of 50 secondary schools whose 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results were withheld over malpractice.
The council issued the denial on Wednesday, August 5, through its official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
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"FAKE NEWS ALERT: Please disregard the message below. It did not originate from WAEC," the council wrote, sharing an image of the forged letter with a bold red "FAKE" stamp overlaid on it.
WAEC: What the forged letter claimed
The document, which carried a date of August 2, 2026, appeared to be addressed to heads of both public and private secondary schools across Nigeria. It alleged that candidates from 50 named schools had their results withheld due to examination malpractice and instructed those schools to submit detailed reports within 14 days or face further sanctions. Schools in several states, including Lagos and Abuja, appeared on the list.
To lend it credibility, the forged letter bore what looked like WAEC's official letterhead and stamps, and was falsely signed in the name of Dr Amos Dangut, the Head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office.
The truth about WASSCE malpractice
The fake letter surfaced on the same day WAEC announced the release of results from the 2026 Computer-Based WASSCE for school candidates. In that official announcement, the council confirmed it had genuinely withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, which represented 8.59 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat the examination.
According to WAEC, the withheld results were linked to a range of infractions. These included the use of mobile phones inside examination halls in violation of an existing ban, as well as evidence of organised cheating in a number of schools. The council also disclosed that some supervisors and invigilators caught assisting candidates to cheat had been arrested and would face disciplinary proceedings through the relevant state ministries of education.
WAEC did not name any of the schools affected by the legitimate result withholding, making the timing of the fake letter particularly misleading to candidates and parents anxious about their results.
Read WAEC's response to the claim below via its
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