Two top management officials of the National Examinations Council (NECO) have been suspended in connection with an alleged N400 million fraud.
The N400 million was said to be proceeds from the sale of examination scratch cards, which was not remitted to the council.
This is happening less than six months after the Registrar and Chief Executive, Prof. Charles Uwakwe, and three other management staff were suspended due to an alleged multi-million naira fraud.
One of the officials allegedly involved in the N400 million fraud is said to be a state officer in one of the states in the North.
The fraud was said to have been allegedly committed while he was in charge of a state in the Southwest.
The official was said to have allegedly misappropriated not less than N400 million, said to be proceeds from the sale of scratch cards.
In the petition, which led to the discovery of the alleged fraud, the petitioner alleged that nearly 40,000 scratch cards were supplied to the state office and were sold, but the money was not remitted to NECO account.
In his reply to a query, the affected officer claimed the scratch cards were stolen, but the theft was not reported to the management.
The case was shut down until the new board of the organisation was constituted and it was ordered reopened, which led to the interdiction of a director at the headquarters and the state officer.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Acting Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Alhaji Abubakar Gana, last night were unsuccessful, as calls were unanswered and messages sent to him were not responded to.
The Director of Communication, Malam Azzez Sani, was said to have travelled out for accreditation of schools.
Source: Nation