The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has dismissed as fake a viral document claiming that candidates from 50 secondary schools had their 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination results withheld over alleged examination malpractice.
The purported letter, which circulated on various social media, was said to have been issued to heads of public and private secondary schools across Nigeria.
However, WAEC, in a statement shared on its official X account on Wednesday, urged the public to disregard the document, describing it as fraudulent.
“FAKE NEWS ALERT: Please disregard the message below. It did not originate from WAEC,” the examination body stated.
The forged letter was dated August 2, 2026, and allegedly directed the affected schools to submit detailed reports on examination malpractice within 14 days or risk further sanctions.
It listed schools purportedly located in different parts of the country, including Lagos and Abuja.
The fake document also bore what appeared to be WAEC’s official letterhead, stamps and the name of the Head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office, Amos Dangut.
WAEC subsequently released an image of the document marked prominently with a red “FAKE” stamp to further clarify that it did not originate from the examination body.
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The clarification came shortly after WAEC announced the release of the 2026 Computer-Based WASSCE results for school candidates.
While the viral list of 50 schools is fake, WAEC confirmed that it had withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 percent of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat for the examination.
The council attributed the withheld results to suspected examination malpractice and other infractions, including the use of mobile phones in examination halls despite an existing ban.
The examination body has therefore urged candidates, parents, schools and the general public to rely only on its official communication channels for information concerning the 2026 WASSCE results and withheld results.
Members of the public were also advised to be cautious about circulating unverified documents, particularly those purporting to come from WAEC.Alternative headline:
