Two private candidates writing the ongoing November-December 2011 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been grabbed by officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for strapping foreign materials to their legs in their separate attempts to cheat in the examination.

One of them, identified as Ebenezer Andita, was arrested in Obuasi when he was found to have strapped a mobile phone to his leg, while the other, Kwabena Oppong Mensah, was arrested in Kumasi after he had been found to have strapped a printed material to his leg.

The Head of the Public Affairs Unit of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said under WAEC regulations, it was an offence for candidates to send foreign materials into examination halls.

Explaining the circumstances leading to the arrest of the two, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said during the writing of the Economics paper at the Christ the King Examination Hall in Obuasi, an invigilator became suspicious of Ebenezer.

Subsequently, she said, the invigilator approached Ebenezer and asked him to stand up and raise his trousers, but the candidate refused.

"It was then that the invigilator raised Ebenezer's trousers, only to see the mobile phone strapped to his leg," she said.

In Oppong's case, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said he was caught with notes strapped to his leg during the writing of the Christian Religious Studies paper in Kumasi.

She expressed shock at the latest events, since the council had organised various fora to educate the public, particularly candidates, on the "Dos and the Don'ts" during its examinations.

"We always tell them not to bring mobile phones and other foreign materials to the examination ball. It is sad that these candidates keep doing what we have asked them not to do,” she emphasised, adding it was with those foreign materials that students cheated in examinations hence their ban.

She said, for instance, that mobile phones could be used by students to store information for use during examination.

A total of 138,790 candidates are writing this year's November-December WASSCE for, private candidates.