NECO Supervisors Revealed To Court That Senator Adeleke Was Never Found In The Exam Hall

A Federal High Court in Abuja heard yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in last year’s Osun State governorship election, Senator Ademola Adeleke, did not sit for the National Examination Council (NECO) examinations in 2017.

It was at the resumed proceedings of the trial of the Ede-born senator and four others for their alleged involvement in examination malpractices. The prosecution called two witnesses Emmanuel Odesola and Adigun Akintayo who said they acted as supervisor and invigilator during the June/July 2017 NECO examination in Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School, Ojo-Aro, Osun State.  

Odesola (a teacher, who was a supervisor during the examination) and Akintayo (a teacher and invigilator)  said they only saw Sikiru Adeleke (the Senator’s brother), who is listed as the 2nd respondent, in the examination hall.

The witnesses also said they did not experience malpractices. They said of the five defendants, they only saw the second defendant (Sikiru Adeleke), the principal and registrar of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School during the examination.

Senator Adeleke, Sikiru Adeleke (who is said to be the senator’s relative), Alhaji Aregbesola Mufutau (the school principal), Gbadamosi Thomas Ojo (registrar) and Dare Samuel Olutope (teacher) were arraigned in November last year.

Testifying yesterday as the third prosecution witness, Odesola said he teaches at Akode Middle High School, Akoda, Ede, but served as supervisor during the 2017 examination. He admitted knowing the Adeleke and three other defendants, except Olutope, who he said he only met for the first time in court.  

Odesola said although he was in the school for the first time, the school authorities failed to provide him with the school album to enable him match the students’ faces with their names.  He said it was the school’s registrar that identified the students before they were allowed into the examination hall.

Odesola said he saw some four elderly men in the exam hall on the day of the Economics examination, but that he could not confront them because they had the school identity cards. The witness said although that was his first day in the school, he did not see the senator in the exam hall.  He added that, although he could not identify who among those in the examination hall were actual students of the school, the principal and registrar of the school confirmed that they were all students, who were issued the school’s identity card.  

He said although 60 students were scheduled to write the examination, two were absent on the day the Economics examination was written.  Odesola added: “I observed that there were some elderly people in the examination hall. They were about four of them.”