Rattled by students’ poor performance, Akwa Ibom makes false claims against PREMIUM TIMES

The Akwa Ibom State Government has disputed PREMIUM TIMES’ report placing the state 36th among the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination, but has yet to provide the official examination data it says contradicts the ranking.

The state government, through its Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah in a release from the State Ministry of Information and the Commissioner for Education, Ubong Umoh in a radio programme, falsely claimed that the report was fake.

Both officials insisted that NECO had not released results from 83 of 214 public-school examination centres in the state.

However, despite repeated requests from PREMIUM TIMES for the official NECO data on which the government based its rebuttal, the government has not provided the document, the performance figures it claims were supplied by NECO, or the list of the 83 affected centres.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained the state-by-state performance data from NECO and subsequently reported the figures on a regional basis, including the performance of Akwa Ibom and other South-south and South-east states.

The newspaper’s report showed that 7,754 of the 20,720 Akwa Ibom candidates who sat the examination obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, standing at 37.42 per cent. That placed Akwa Ibom 36th among the 36 states and the FCT, only ahead of Sokoto, which recorded 26.82 per cent.

Other media reported same NECO figures

The figures were not unique to PREMIUM TIMES. Other reputable media organisations, including the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), BusinessDay, Punch, Nigerian Television Authority and Channels Television, reported figures from the 2026 NECO examination after the council released the results.

BusinessDay, for instance, reported that Abia recorded the highest proportion of candidates meeting the five-credit benchmark at 81.78 per cent, followed by Ebonyi at 81.03 per cent and Ekiti at 77.68 per cent. It also reported that Kano, despite producing the largest number of candidates meeting the benchmark, ranked 31st when performance was measured by percentage.

PREMIUM TIMES later analysed the state-by-state data and published the complete ranking based on the percentage of candidates who met the five-credit benchmark, rather than the absolute number of successful candidates.

BusinessDay’s and ICIR state-by-state analyses explicitly mentioned Akwa Ibom, giving it 37.42 per cent, with 7,754 of 20,720 candidates meeting the five-credit benchmark, including in English and Mathematics. It placed Akwa Ibom second-lowest, ahead of only Sokoto.

According to a report by BusinessDay, NECO itself announced that its detailed statistical tables contained state and geopolitical-zone rankings, and specifically reported Akwa Ibom’s South-south position.

What NECO announced

NECO Registrar, Dantani Wushishi, announced the 2026 results in Minna on 24 September.

According to the figures reported from his briefing, 1,371,992 candidates sat the examination, while 804,948, representing 58.67 per cent, obtained at least five credits including English Language and Mathematics.

Another 1,162,118 candidates, representing 84.70 per cent, obtained five credits irrespective of their performance in English Language and Mathematics.

NECO also reported 1,406 candidates involved in examination malpractice, down from 3,878 in 2025.

The council’s announcement did not publicly state during the results briefing that results from 83 Akwa Ibom examination centres were outstanding because of accreditation issues.

It remains unclear from the publicly available NECO announcement whether the 83 centres cited by the Akwa Ibom State Government were excluded from the state-level figures obtained by PREMIUM TIMES or whether the centres’ results were withheld for another reason.

Government changes the basis of comparison

In its response, the Akwa Ibom Government falsely claimed the chart used by PREMIUM TIMES was “not an official NECO document” and claimed that NECO’s official data placed Kano, Lagos and Oyo first, second and third, respectively.

But that claim appears to merge two different ways of presenting the same examination figures.

Kano did indeed record the largest absolute number of candidates who obtained at least five credits including English and Mathematics, with 74,413 candidates. Lagos recorded 72,496, while Oyo had 55,543.

Yet, the PREMIUM TIMES ranking was based on the proportion of candidates who met the benchmark within each state, not the raw number of successful candidates.

On that basis, Abia recorded 81.78 per cent, Ebonyi 81.03 per cent and Ekiti 77.68 per cent. Kano, with its much larger candidate population, recorded 45.85 per cent and ranked 31st.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Kano State celebrated its result in absolute terms, highlighting its 74,413 successful candidates. It did not, in the material reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, claim that Kano had the highest percentage performance among states.

A state with a very large examination population can produce more successful candidates in absolute numbers while having a lower success rate than a state with fewer candidates.

PREMIUM TIMES’ analysis found that Kano had 162,302 candidates sitting the examination, of whom 74,413 met the benchmark, giving it a 45.85 per cent performance rate and placing it 31st.

Akwa Ibom’s unanswered 83-centre claim

The central issue raised by the Akwa Ibom Government, however, is different.

The information commissioner, Mr Umanah said results from 83 of the 214 examination centres in public schools in the state were still being withheld while NECO concluded “sorting and verification of the statutory accreditation status” of the centres.

His counterpart in the education ministry, Mr Umoh, speaking on Akwa Ibom-based XL FM radio on Tuesday night, repeated the claim, saying the results were still “trickling in” and that accreditation and reaccreditation issues involving the centres had not been concluded.

He argued that the outstanding candidates could substantially change the state’s overall performance.

However, the government has not disclosed how many candidates are affected by the 83 centres.

It has also not identified the centres, their locations, the number of candidates in each centre, the precise accreditation issues being investigated, or when NECO is expected to release the results.

Those details are important since the state’s argument rests on the proposition that the 83 centres contain enough outstanding candidates to materially change the reported 37.42 per cent performance.

Without the number of candidates affected, it will be impossible to independently test the proposition by the government.

Government yet to produce alternative figures

Following the government’s statement, PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Umanah and Mr Umoh to provide the official NECO document relied upon in disputing the newspaper’s report.

The newspaper also requested the specific number of Akwa Ibom candidates whose results had been released, the number still outstanding, the performance rate based on the released results and the NECO document the government claimed challenged the PREMIUM TIMES report.

PREMIUM TIMES further requested the complete list of the 83 centres, their locations and the number of affected candidates.

Neither commissioner responded to the requests made on Wednesday morning before this report was filed.

The two officials did not respond to calls and the media inquiries shared with them via WhatsApp.

The newspaper separately contacted NECO spokesperson, Abdulazeez Sanni, asking whether the results for Akwa Ibom were complete, whether 83 centres had outstanding results, the number of affected candidates, the reasons for withholding the results and whether NECO’s official data placed Kano, Lagos and Oyo first, second and third by performance.

Mr Sanni, who said he was outside the country, replied that he would provide feedback after returning the following week.

NECO has not, as of the time of filing, provided PREMIUM TIMES with the requested clarification.