The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Rivers State University and the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, have said they would not shield any lecturer found culpable of corrupt practices or sexual harassment of students in their institutions.
ASUU Chairman at the RSU, Dr. Emmanuel Ekwuolo, stated this while speaking on the sex-for-grade undercover video released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), recently.
Ekwuolo advised students of the university with evidence of corrupt practices or sexual harassment by any lecturer to submit same to him.
“There are things that can be determined and some of the persons dismissed. But most importantly, it is for us to encourage those students who are victims to report the matter.
“I assure you that if such things happen, the first thing we do is to get to the Dean and the Head of Department and tell them that we don’t want to see any student victimized.
“We ensured that no one did so. We monitor from the beginning to the end. We encourage students to confide in us.
“If they think they cannot confide in the administration, maybe, their Deans or Heads of Department, they can confide in the union and provide evidence. No matter how high ranking you are, if you are found guilty, you will face justice,” he warned.
Similarly, the ASUU Chairman at the University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Austen Sado, challenged students in the institution to submit evidence of sexual harassment against any lecturer, promising to help them get justice.
“I am challenging anybody in the University of Port Harcourt who has information about anybody, and you can give us evidence about it, to bring it forth.
“Lecturers have been sacked in the University of Port Harcourt for misconduct, and to a reasonable extent, we worked with the administration to make sure that some lecturers were disciplined,” Sado stated.
He recalled that lecturers found to have committed one infraction or the other in the past were disciplined for acts such as ‘extortion and people doing more than one job,” noting that “the union is fighting to expose it.”
Meanwhile, the 2019 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, commended the senate for reintroducing the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill.
Atiku expressed hope that the move would be an intervention in addressing the sex for grades scourge ravaging Nigeria’s universities.
The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, had, yesterday, during plenary reintroduced the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill.
He had explained that the reintroduction of the bill was due to call by concerned parents and youth that law be enacted against sexual harassment in workplaces and educational institutions.
Reacting, the former Vice President, in a tweet wrote: “I welcome the reintroduction of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill, a carryover from the 8th @NGRSenate.
“I hope that it will be one among several interventions in addressing the #SexForGrades scourge and in ensuring that our campuses are rid of predators.-AA”
This is coming at a time a documentary by BBC exposed a lecturer with the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Boniface Igbeneghu, after he was caught on camera demanding sex from an undercover journalist who posed as an admission seeker.
Igbeneghu is a former sub-dean of the Faculty of Art and head pastor of local Foursquare Gospel Church.
The church has since suspended the alleged randy pastor and distanced itself from Igbeneghu.

Dennis Naku