THE West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), has threatened to impose penalties on candidates who failed to collect their certificates on or before December 31.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mr Yusuf Ari, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

It stated that millions of certificates of candidates who sat for WAEC examinations since 1960 had long been signed but were not collected by candidates.

“We wish to inform the general public that certificates up to May/June 2012 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), conducted by WAEC have been printed and dispatched to schools for collection by candidates.

“And certificates for external candidates for up to November/December 2012 WASSCE diet, also conducted by the Council have also been printed and are equally awaiting collection by candidates at WAEC offices nationwide.

“The external candidates, especially who wrote the November/December examination diets are advised to go and collect their certificates from all our zonal branches or satellite offices in the states.

“We urge candidates to go to where they sat for the examination because we no longer have enough space to harbour them.

“Most of these certificates have been lying fallow in our various offices with no one coming forward to collect them.

“Candidates come in trickles for them, only when they have absolute need for them and I think it should not be so.

“We therefore wish to warn that WAEC will be charging extra fee for the custody of these certificates if the candidates failed to collect them later than December 31,” the statement said.