The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has withheld the examination results of 61 students of the Department of Nursing, Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State, following an alleged case of examination impersonation.
The affected students sat for the Nursing and Midwifery examination about two weeks ago but have reportedly been unable to access their results after the Council flagged the examination over the alleged impersonation of a candidate.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the NMCN took the decision after an individual suspected to have impersonated one of the candidates was reportedly captured on camera during the Council’s examination monitoring process in Abuja.
According to one of the sources familiar with the matter, the alleged impersonator absconded from the examination hall immediately after being detected and has remained at large.
The source said the incident prompted the NMCN to withhold the results of all 61 candidates who participated in the examination, pending the resolution of the impersonation case.
“The Council withheld the results of all the 61 students because of the impersonation case. The person was captured on camera during the monitoring of the examination in Abuja and immediately absconded from the examination hall after being detected,” the source said.
“The person has not been found since then, and none of the 61 students has been identified as the person who impersonated the candidate.”
The decision has reportedly left the 61 nursing students in a difficult situation, as they are being prevented from proceeding with the next stage of their professional training despite no evidence, according to the sources, linking any of them individually to the alleged impersonation.
The students were reportedly expected to be inducted into the nursing profession this week following the completion of their examination process.
However, the withholding of their results has made it impossible for the induction to proceed as scheduled.
“They are supposed to be inducted this week, but they cannot because the results have been withheld,” another source said.
The students are now facing uncertainty over their academic and professional progression, with their induction dependent on the release and confirmation of their examination results.
The development has also reportedly generated concerns among the affected students and their families, who are seeking clarification on why the results of all 61 candidates should be withheld over an alleged offence involving an unidentified individual.
Sources said the university is expected to engage with the NMCN to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident, assist in identifying the person involved and seek a resolution that would allow the results of students who were not implicated in the alleged impersonation to be released.
When SaharaReporters contacted Sarah Iyalome, the Head of the Department of Nursing at Ambrose Alli University, she did not answer calls placed to her phone and did not respond to a message sent to her.
However, Otunba Mike Adelegun Aladenika, spokesperson and Head of Corporate Communications at the Ambrose Alli University, disputed the claims surrounding the alleged 61 affected students and said the university had no record of such a case involving its students.
Aladenika said the university had presented its nursing students for the professional examination but insisted that the examination itself was conducted by the NMCN and that the university could not accept responsibility for any alleged malpractice committed during the Council’s examination.
He said he personally spoke with several principal officers involved in the matter, including the Provost of the College of Medicine, the immediate past Head of the Department of Nursing, the current Head of the Department of Nursing, the Dean and a representative of the Registrar of the Council.
“All the principal officers concerned with the matter you raised were at the venue, so I was able to speak with them directly — from the Provost of the College of Medicine, to the immediate past Head of the Department of Nursing, the current Head of the Department of Nursing, the Dean, and, lastly, the representative of the Registrar of the Council,” Aladenika said.
“I spoke with all of them separately on the subject matter, and all of them gave me the same answer.”
According to him, if the Council had withheld the results because of examination malpractice, the matter was within the Council’s jurisdiction because the examination was a professional examination conducted by the NMCN and not an examination organised by AAU.
“One, if it is alleged that the Council seized their results based on examination malpractice, are you following me, sir?” he said.
“If the Council had seized their results for alleged examination malpractice, that is their cup of tea.
“The examination was not conducted by the university. It was a professional examination conducted by the Council. So, whatever happens to them and their results, that is their cup of tea.
“The AAU presented them for that examination. They got there and got themselves involved in one thing or the other. That is their cup of tea.”
Aladenika, however, went further to deny that the university had any record showing that 61 of its nursing students were affected by an examination malpractice case.
He said the university held an induction ceremony on Friday, with more than 400 people inducted.
“Now, we had the induction today. Over 400 people were inducted,” he said.
He added that the Head of the Department of Nursing had informed him that there was no record of 61 AAU students affected by the alleged examination malpractice case.
“And another piece of information: the HOD told me that the number 61 does not exist,” Aladenika said.
“Yes, that number does not exist. Rather, there are outstanding numbers that are not part of this set. They are legitimately from another set next to this one, and they are yet to be claimed.
“And there are more than 100 of them.
“And they don’t have this issue.
“So, where is this 61 that is allegedly involved in examination malpractice coming from?”
According to the university spokesperson, neither AAU nor the NMCN had any record corresponding to the alleged 61 students.
He said the representative of the Registrar of the NMCN also told him that there was no such record before the Council.
“He explained that there is no record of it at the university, neither is there any record at the Council. The representative of the Registrar of the Council also told me the same thing—that there is no record before them concerning this,” Aladenika said.
“So, we don’t know where this is coming from.”
The university spokesperson also maintained that AAU would not accept responsibility for any examination malpractice allegedly committed by students during a professional examination conducted by the NMCN.
“Nobody is accepting responsibility for your wrongdoing on that matter,” he said.
“If it had been that the university did not present you for one reason or the other, we could begin to talk about that.
“No, of course. You were presented for the examination.
“You were presented for the examination, but you indulged in malpractice.
“We don’t have that in our records here. To the best of my knowledge, there is no AAU student that was involved. Not a single one.
“So, that was why the HOD and the representative of the Registrar were wondering, ‘Where is this coming from?’”
(SaharaReporters)