The National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) has expressed concern over the alleged disruption of the board’s activities and destruction of its documents by some security men.
Mrs Shirley Imandojemu, NABTEB’s Principal Legal Officer, made the disclosure at a news conference after an inspection of the office in Abuja on Tuesday.
Imandojemu explained that the vandalism of the board’s property by security men had disrupted the board’s activities,
She added that candidates seeking admission into some tertiary institutions for the 2019/2020 academic session might be affected.
She stated that the matter had been reported to the Ministry of Education so that it could intervene and take proactive measures on behalf of the board.
She recalled that on Saturday, July 13, some members of staff were in the office when some armed men said to be from the Inspector-General of Police’s Special Squad Unit arrested some of the board’s security officers.
She added that the security men were later taken to the police station and were released on Sunday, July 14.
According to her, our security men told us that the police labelled an offence that the office was a brothel.
“The first people who came were the SARS; they came on Friday night and arrested our security men and a staff member that stays here.
“More than 20 armed men came here to vandalise the property of the government, they returned on Saturday night and painted off our office logo.
“They told our security men that they were policemen.
“They said they labeled an offence that the office was a brothel. If you go along this road you will see lounge and vehicles are packed here.
“You see the way they packed our examination scripts, imagine these are our security documents for candidates which were just manhandled.
“The doors were forced opened, all the accounting documents have been removed, we have a safe here where we keep things and we can no longer see it.
“We cannot work here for the next two months, all stationery and store items have been taken away; the movement books for questions were also taken away.
Imandojemu disclosed that the property was acquired by NABTEB in 1998.
She said the board applied to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) for change of land use from residential to commercial use while paying contravention fees from June 21, 2005.
She, however, said the board on April 23, 2014, received a notice from the FCDA to surrender possession of the property on ground that the property had been sold under Federal Government Monetisation policy.
“We went to court and the court granted an injunction in 2013 since then that injunction has been subsisting and the court said all parties should maintain the status quo till the matter is determined.
“But what we later saw was the forceful closure of the office,’’ she said.
In his reaction, Mr Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations Officer (PRO), told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that they (police) were aware of the matter, stressing that it had been sorted out.
NABTEB is a certified examination body saddled with the responsibility of conducting examinations for candidates in the May/June and November/December General Certificate Examinations (GCE) and modular examinations.
