From Douglas Blessing, Port Harcourt
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), has sensitised students against organised crimes ranging from drug abuse, cultism, exam malpractice, and violent extremism in the Niger Delta.
The Executive-Director of YEAC Nigeria, Mr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, during the sensitization workshop for students of Community Secondary School, Bori, described organised crimes as a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activities, most commonly for profit.
Fyneface blamed the rising cases of exam malpractice in secondary schools on parenting failure, a corrupt educational system, poor students’ attitude, societal failure, undue emphasis on academic results and certificate acquisition over knowledge, and inadequate preparation by students.
According to him, organised crimes are continuously maintained through the corruption of public officials and the use of intimidation, threats, or forces to protect their operations. He added that YEAC-Nigeria would carry out the sensitization in more secondary schools in the state and beyond.
He described examination malpractice as deliberate wrongdoing contrary to official examination rules designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage or disadvantage and warned the students that the penalties for exam malpractice under the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act include a five-year jail term or a fine of N100,000.
“Examination malpractices include dubbing, sorting, girraffing, copying, writing on the body, use of sign language, impersonation, leakage of exam questions, tampering with results, bribery, sex-for-marks, use of mercenaries, computer fraud during computer-based exams, and fraudulent practices by invigilators, among others.
“Effects of examination malpractice include dismissal, termination, loss of position, lack of self-confidence, loss of trust in the educational system, reduced enrolment of students in school, cancellation of results, discourages good students or candidates from studying hard, deprives innocent students’ opportunity for admission, decreases job efficiency, prostitution, stealing, and armed robbery.”
On drug and substance abuse, YEAC-Nigeria cautioned the students against involvement in drug abuse by not succumbing to peer pressure or using drugs illicitly, noting that the United Nations has set aside June 16 every year as a special day to raise more awareness on drug abuse.
