The Akwa Ibom State Government has rejected a purported ranking of states based on the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) results, saying results from 83 of the 214 public-school examination centres in the state are still being withheld by the examination body.
The Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Umanah, said the outstanding results made it premature to assess or rank Akwa Ibom’s overall performance in the examination, particularly as NECO was still completing the sorting and verification of the accreditation status of the affected centres.
Umanah was reacting to a report circulating on social media which purportedly placed Akwa Ibom among the lowest-performing states in the 2026 NECO examination.
He described the report as false and misleading, arguing that the performance chart on which the ranking was based was not an official NECO document, although its presentation created the impression that it represented data released by the examination body.
The commissioner said the 2026 NECO results were officially released on September 24, but maintained that the disputed chart should not be used as the basis for determining the performance of individual states.
He further faulted the ranking of states contained in the report, saying official NECO data available to the state showed Kano, Lagos and Oyo occupying the first, second and third positions respectively, rather than Abia, Ebonyi and Ekiti listed in the circulated chart.
According to him, the fact that results from 83 public-school centres remain outstanding is significant because their eventual release could alter the overall picture of the state’s performance.
“The results of 83 out of 214 examination centres of public schools in Akwa Ibom State are yet to be released by NECO,” Umanah said, explaining that the examination body was still concluding the sorting and verification process.
He therefore urged the media to exercise greater caution when reporting examination statistics, particularly where the underlying data is incomplete or has not been authenticated by the examination body.
Beyond the disputed ranking, Umanah said education remained a major component of the administration’s ARISE Agenda, with more than N35 billion provided for the sector in the state’s 2026 approved budget.
He also disclosed that N5.9 billion had been released to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for basic education intervention projects covering 2025 and 2026.
The commissioner said the state had continued to invest in model primary schools while also providing bursaries and paying examination fees for candidates sitting for the Placement Examination, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) examinations and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Umanah added that the government had extended educational support beyond basic infrastructure, citing approval of full overseas tuition for a young graduate pursuing a master’s degree and an earlier scholarship for a young law graduate from the Government Children’s Home to undertake postgraduate studies abroad.
He said the interventions reflected the government’s stated commitment to expanding educational opportunities and improving the learning environment for young people in the state.
Umanah consequently urged the public to disregard the disputed ranking and other claims based on the chart until the outstanding results are released and the official data is complete.
He advised members of the public and media organisations to rely on information issued through NECO’s authoritative channels when assessing the 2026 examination performance of Akwa Ibom and other states.
