Society
“Disregard the Fake Ranking” — Akwa Ibom Says NECO Results Still Incomplete
said the performance chart relied upon by the report was not an official
The Akwa Ibom State Government has dismissed as fake and misleading a report ranking the state among the lowest-performing states in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) results, saying results from 83 of its 214 public-school examination centres are yet to be released.
Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Umanah, said the performance chart relied upon by the report was not an official NECO document and did not represent the examination council’s final data.
Umanah said the 2026 NECO results were released on September 24, but stressed that the chart published by Premium Times could not be used to determine the overall performance of Akwa Ibom.
According to him, while the report placed Abia, Ebonyi and Ekiti States in the first three positions, official NECO data identifies Kano, Lagos and Oyo States as the first, second and third positions.
He further disclosed that results from 83 of the 214 examination centres in Akwa Ibom were still being withheld by NECO as the examination body concluded the sorting and verification of the statutory accreditation status of the affected centres.
“Disregard the fake ranking,” Umanah said, stressing that any attempt to assess the state’s overall performance before the outstanding results are released is premature and misleading.
The Commissioner urged media organisations to exercise greater diligence when reporting examination statistics, particularly where official results are still being processed.
He reaffirmed the administration of Governor Umo Eno’s commitment to education, noting that more than ₦35 billion was provided for education in the 2026 Approved Budget.
Umanah also said ₦5.9 billion had been released to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for basic education intervention projects for 2025 and 2026.
He listed the construction of model primary schools, payment of student bursaries and examination fees for Placement Examination, BECE, NABTEB and WASSCE candidates among the government’s interventions in the sector.
The Commissioner also cited scholarship and overseas tuition support provided to young Akwa Ibom indigenes pursuing postgraduate studies.
He urged members of the public to rely on verified information from NECO and other authoritative sources for updates on the 2026 examination results.
