The staff of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, are mourning three colleagues who lost their lives in a motor accident while on official assignment during the recently concluded 2026 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The trio — Eleshin Dennis Olayinka, Dan-Malam Add’ua Muhammed, and Yusuf Umar Gwamna — were travelling in a pickup van loaded with examination materials along the Gombe-Yola Road when an oncoming trailer reportedly veered out of its lane and collided head-on with their vehicle, killing them instantly.
To honour the deceased, workers under the aegis of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), WAEC branch, held a solemn candlelight service in Lagos last Thursday.
Two of the victims — Eleshin Dennis Olayinka, who served at the WAEC office in Ogba, Lagos, and Dan-Malam Add’ua Muhammed, a driver at the Jalingo office — were active NASU members. The third victim, Yusuf Umar Gwamna, was a security officer at the Yola office.
The hybrid event allowed NASU members in Lagos to attend physically, while colleagues across WAEC branches nationwide joined virtually. The service featured solidarity messages, tributes, prayers, and reflections celebrating the lives and sacrifices of the departed workers.
Shortly afterwards, mourners held a candlelight procession. The procession commenced at the Excellence Hotel in Ogba and ended at the nearby WAEC office in Ogba, where Eleshin had worked until his death.
The atmosphere was filled with grief as mourners reflected on the lives of their departed colleagues. They collectively insisted that a tragedy claiming workers in the prime of their lives must never be allowed to recur in the organisation. The remains of the three staff members have since been buried.
In a statement jointly signed by the branch NASU Chairman, Kayode Ogunyade, and the Secretary, Adewola Adeyemi, and made available to the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, the union described the deceased as dedicated personnel who served WAEC diligently and paid the ultimate price in the course of a national assignment.
However, the union noted that the unfortunate incident could have been avoided if “management had not put workers under undue pressure” during the school-based examination.
According to NASU, management’s desperation to achieve a 24-hour operational timeframe between printing examination materials and distributing them to centres nationwide placed severe pressure on staff.
“As a union, we repeatedly cautioned the management to soft-pedal on the policy and allow us to operate the traditional 48-hour time cycle because of the danger the 24-hour timeframe poses to workers’ health, welfare, safety, and effectiveness,” the statement read. “Nothing suggested then that this compressed timeline would eventually lead to a loss of lives in the manner our three colleagues died.”
The union explained that the previous two-day window allowed dispatch teams to navigate Nigeria’s unpredictable security landscape and fragile road networks safely, without being rushed.
The union further argued that the implementation of the 24-hour timeframe policy exposes staff members and operational teams to dangerous and unhealthy working conditions.
These, it said, include prolonged working hours for courier teams, inadequate rest periods, excessive physical and mental fatigue, and increased exposure to avoidable hazards.
“That is why we, as a union, strongly believe that these unsafe conditions significantly contributed to the accident that claimed the lives of our members and the police escort officer,” NASU stated.
The union also faulted management’s claims that delays in conducting some papers — especially Mathematics and Government — were largely due to the tragic deaths of the three staff members. It described the claim as false and aimed at misleading the public while diverting attention from the organisation’s true operational realities.
“It is not only unacceptable to us but deeply regrettable that management could attempt to use the tragic death of dedicated staff members as a justification for administrative and operational failures that led to the late-hour conduct of some papers,” the statement added.
While urging management to adopt worker-friendly policies and guard against future occurrences, the union demanded better conditions of service for all categories of workers.
It maintained that WAEC Nigeria staff deserve to serve under conditions that conform to international best practices.
