National Examinations Council (NECO) has withheld the results of 88, 884 candidates who sat for the May/June 2008 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) which was concluded in September due to the nationwide strike by school teachers.
Registrar of the Council, Professor Promise Okpala, disclosed this at a press briefing at the NECO headquarters in Minna, Wednesday.
According to Okpala, the results which are still going to be marked were withheld as a result of malpractices, cheating, fraud and cases of suspicion which, according to him, needed to be scrutinized by a committee and investigated .
Okpala said that out of the 1,168, 535 candidates that sat for the examination, the results of 1,088,883 candidates were completed, 381,361 were absent, 99 candidates did not have continuous assessment and 52 are blind candidates.
According to Okpala, Lagos state was the highest with 72,730 candidates for the exams out of which 49, 331 candidates got a total of five credits and above excluding mathematics and English.
It is followed by Kaduna with 60,168 candidates who sat for the exams and 43,160 getting five credits and above.
He disclosed that Benue state came third with 49, 197 candidates for the exams and 41, 393 candidates obtainig five credits and above.
Zamfara state had the lowest number of candidates with 16, 014 who sat for the examination and 4, 123 got the required five credits and above.