Suspend Academic Activities To Allow Students Participate In Elections – Reps Tells NUC

To enable students of voting age participate in the forthcoming general elections, the House of Representatives at plenary, Thursday, called on the relevant authorities in the education sector particularly the National Universities Commission, NUC to cause the suspension of academic activities for the period.

The resolution followed the consideration of a motion sponsored by Hon. Kabir Ibrahim at the plenary Thursday.

Presenting the motion, Ibrahim posited that the students constituted 40 percent of the newly registered votes in the states outside the location of their university.

He argued it was their constitutional rights to vote during elections and therefore should be allowed to vote.

The motion was eventually adopted by the House which secured the support of the majority.

On the other hand, the House stepped down a motion on the urgent need to halt the incidence of stringent penalties placed by West African Examination Council, WAEC on some secondary schools in Ebonyi state.

The motion presented by Hon. Chinedu Ogah stated that the penalities which were up to N500,000 stemmed from perceive examination malpractices.

He said that the development had prevented many students of these schools from writing exams and eventually turned hawkers.

He called on WAEC to immediately halt the penalties, adding that the council should be investigated to know if those penalties are remitted to the Federal government coffers.

In his contribution, Hon. Nkem Abonta said that the schools should be penalized if truly their erred, adding that the House cannot be seen to be taking sides with the schools.

In his contribution also, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Idris Wase frowned at the motion, saying the House will not condone malpractices done by some of these schools who connive with officials to cheat.

He therefore urged Ogah to step down the motion.

Based on the advice, the motion was eventually stepped down by the mover.

NAN