Speaking on Saturday while observing the administration of the exam at a few centers in Lagos, Oloyede said that applicants who were unable to take the exam during the main exercise in May for several reasons notably due to examination malpractice—had to retake it.

He also mentioned that over 42,000 candidates were sitting for the exam across five states.

“Rewriting the examination has cost the board over N100m. The cancellation of the examination in the 10 centers affected, was carried out in the belief that the board is conscious of the fact that no matter how few, there are still some genuine candidates among them.

“After a thorough analysis of the conduct of the 2022 UTME in 10 centers spreads across five states of the federation where examination malpractice was established to have taken place, it became necessary to cancel the results of all candidates who sat for the examination in the affected states.

“Other categories of candidates rescheduled for the mop-up UTME are those with fingerprint errors, BVN failure, and technical issues.”

Oloyede decried the activities of the centers that were involved in aiding and abetting examination malpractice, saying the owners of the centers had yet to make payment for the exercise,” he said.

He noted that it would be worth the while even if it was only one candidate that could be rescued from the consequences of the malpractice.

“The candidates have seen for themselves that cutting corners do not pay. They have seen that they are repeating the examination, though it costs us a lot of money.

“The only shortest way to success is hard work,” he said.

The registrar stated that the fight against examination malpractice was non-negotiable with the board.

Meanwhile, it was observed that some candidates could not start their exam until about 30 to 40 minutes after their allotted starting time due to pressure on the exam officials as they were many.

It was also discovered that some candidates failed to arrive at their testing locations on time, giving various reasons for their tardiness, such as mistaking the WAEC testing location for the WAEC International Office.

While the exam was taking place, some candidates at the WAEC Testing and Training Center in Ogba, the WAEC International Office in Agidingbi, and the center at the JKK House Ilupeju on Ikorodu Road claimed there were no major issues.

However, they claimed that despite some of the questions being a little challenging and the two hours allotted for the four subjects not being enough, they were confident that they would pass the exam and be admitted to the institutions of their choice.