The House of Representatives on Wednesday urged states owing the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to pay the fees of government-sponsored candidates for the 2014 and 2015 examinations.

The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Rep. Linus Okorie (Ebonyi-PDP) and unanimously adopted by the members.

Okorie expressed concern that over 600,000 candidates risked the threat of their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results being withheld by the council.

It would be recalled that WAEC threatened to withhold the results of candidates of unnamed 19 affected states over an alleged four billion naira debt owed the council.

According to Okorie, the threat if implemented will affect more than half of the 1.2 million innocent young candidates that sat for the examination, disrupt their academic pursuit and disorient them psychologically.

He said the inability of the affected states to settle the alleged debt had led the council to bankruptcy.

“This alleged financial constraint,” he said, “is negatively affecting the capacity of the council to meet its financial obligations, particularly its supervisors, examiners and service providers.”

The house, therefore, resolved to constitute an ad-hoc Committee to urgently intervene in the alleged debt crisis.

It stated that the committee would report back to the house within one week. (NAN)