The lawmaker representing Ikwo, Ezza South federal constituency of Ebonyi state in the House of Representative, Hon. Chinedu Ogah, Tuesday, paid the sum of 17,489,000 million for 1,007 students.
The benefitiaries cut across public and private schools in the local government areas that made up the constituency and some schools in the capital city of Abakaliki.
This was as West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), confirmed payment of the fees during the official ceremony of the distribution of cheques to the two examination bodies for the benefiting candidates at Ikwo high school Agubia, IKWO LGA.
Ebonyi state Controller of WAEC, Mrs Gloria Mgbike, said the council received over N13million for 507 candidates by Ogah while the state Coordinator of JAMB, Mrs. Doris Enoch disclosed that the sum of N3.8million was paid for 500 candidates for JAMB examination by the federal lawmaker.
They lauded Ogah for the gesture and urged the benefiting candidates to study hard and make him proud.
Mgbike said “this year, a lot of students benefited from the payment of WAEC fees by Hon. Chinedu Ogah.
“The woman in charge of his foundation came in January to inform us that he is ready to register his constituents this year and I want to confirm that 507 candidates benefitted. He paid to WAEC over N13million” .
On her part, Enoch said”on the 10th of this month, we got an invitation by Hon. Chinedu Ogah he is going to pay JAMB fees for 500 candidates.
“We the parents that are here today know that a JAMB form costs N7,700. If you multiply it by 500 candidates, you will know that it’s over N3. 8million.
“If everybody is doing the way he is doing, the state will develop more than what it is today”, she stated.
The state Chairman of Secondary Education Board, Mrs. Lilian Nwankwo and Chairman of Ezza South local government, Mrs. Euphemia Nwali, commended the lawmaker.
Ogah, while handing over the cheques to the benefiting schools, warned their heads against collecting monies from the state government for the benefiting students.
He threatened to arrest and prosecute any school head who collect WAEC fees from the government on the candidates he paid their fees.
He noted that he decided to issue cheques to the examination bodies and not giving cash to the beneficiaries this year to avoid misusing the monies the way some of them did in the past.
“This is making it 15 years I have been paying WAEC fees for students. I started doing this before I became Honourable member.
“Before, we used to give funds to the students to register for the WAEC fees but we found out that some of them misused the funds. This is why we decided to pay direct to WAEC this year.
“We have 39 public secondary schools in the constituency, private schools 29 and we have paid to WAEC.
“The total number of students we paid their WAEC fees this year is 507 students. We have paid JAMB fees for 500 persons for this year”.
The lawmaker also issued cheques of N454,800 and 254,000 to public and private schools as miscellaneous fees for the two examinations.
