By Suzzan John
The ongoing attempts by the Hon Oboku Abonsizibe Oforji-led House Committee on Basic Examination Bodies with the claimed view to undertake review performance audit of the agencies under its jurisdiction to assess the implementation of projects and programmes, is seen, according to an investigation by Education Monitor, as a vendetta against the examination bodies for their refusal to surrender a certain huge percentage of their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is money paid by students for the conduct of their examinations, and which runs into several millions of Naira, to the Oforji Committee.
Education Monitor newspaper gathered that the House Committee through its chairman, Hon Oforji, wrote letters, dated 31st, October , 2025, titled, ‘Request for Submission of Documents’, to the Central Bank Governor, The Accountant General of the Federation and the Chairman, Public Accounts Committee.
The letters all partly read, “warm greetings to you from me and the members of the Committee. As you are aware, pursuant to sections 88 and 89 of the constitution (as amended) the National Assembly has inherent powers to investigate the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department. In view of this, the Committee on Basic Education Examination Bodies has commenced reviewing the performance audit of the agencies under its jurisdiction to assess the implementation of projects and programmes in accordance with the relevant laws.”
The letters stressed that, “to facilitate this review, we kindly request that you furnish the committee with the following documents – (1) National Examinations Council (NECO)’S Budget, and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Performance and implementation from 2023 to date, (2) Provide us with all the National Examinations Council (NECO)’S remittance and payment receipts from 2023 to date.
The same request was made in respect of West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Business and Technical Examinations Board, National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). However, in the case of JAMB, the Committee further requested for its Statements of Account between 2023 to date.
As plausible as the intention of the committee may look, in line with its mandate and backed by the constitution, there are doubts about its sincerity, especially considering the information about the selfish and unparliamentary attitude that the chairman had displayed in his dealings with the examination bodies.
For instance, it was gathered that he had persistently been pressurising the examination bodies to allocate a handsome percentage of their IGR to him in the name of his Committee, which would run into several millions of Naira, but the bodies refused, a reason why many believed that that was what triggered his attempt to probe the bodies under the guise of reviewing their performance audit.
Hon Oforji, according to our findings, first hired a consultant to audit the accounts of the examination bodies, but later felled apart with the consultant who Hon Oforji accused for shielding the Registrar of JAMB who happened to be his kinsman.
After firing him, he went on to hire another consultant who he mandated to ensure that he implicates the CEO of any Examination body that refused to play ball.
Another instance where even fellow Committee members of Hon Oforji have problem with him is the way he had allegedly been using their names to collect monies from the examination bodies to carry out official functions, without giving his colleagues their shares.
Buttressing this claim, one of the Committee members confided in this reporter that there was a time that Hon Oforji requested for money on their behalf to travell to London for an official function and oversight function, but, when the money was given to him, he went alone without giving them their own.
There was another instance when the Chairman was given the sum N62,700,000 to attend an official function with his committee members, but, none of them attended the function . When he was asked to refund the money, he promised to do so, but ended up refunding only N43,000,000.