Sexual Harassment:ABSU Fires Five Lecturers

More than five lectur-ers at the Abia State University, (ABSU), Uturu have lost their jobs on account of their involvement in alleged sexual harassment of female students of the institution.

Also, 39 students have been thrown out of the school for their role in cultism while a religious group has been proscribed for pleading on behalf of the expelled cultists.

Vice Chancellor of ABSU, Prof Mkpa Agu Mkpa, who disclosed this to newsmen at the Uturu campus of the university, said the punitive measures were aimed at making the school conducive for academic activities.

Responding to a question to the effect that female students were facing sexual harassment by lecturers, Mkpa said such incidents took place in the past, stressing that since he assumed office about four years ago, some lecturers have received the boot for such unbecoming attitude.

“Five lecturers have sacked on account of reported cases of sexual harassment of female students. Some of the lecturers voluntarily resigned when they got wind that they would be indicted by the panel set up to investigate reported cases against them,” Mkpa said,.

The vice chancellor explained that it was partly to check exploitation and intimidation of students by lecturers that his administration introduced the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) in the institution.

He said since the introduction of the MCQ, students were no longer at the mercy of lecturers as 80 is selected from the 150 objective questions submitted by a lecturer on any course to the Examination Department while the answer scripts were marked by the computer.

“The students were encouraged to report cases of sexual harassment, intimidation or exploitation when they realised that the lecturers were not in control of their fate,” Mkpa added, stressing that some lecturers have been made to refund money to students when it was discovered that they sold their handouts at exhorbitant prices.

“We will continue to work for moral excellence,” he assured, saying sexual harassment is now a thing of the past in ABSU as dress codes have equally been introduced to check female students from appearing seductive on campus.

He pledged that ABSU would continue to uphold students-friendly programmes for which the Lagos-based Institute of Humanitarian Services and Social Development recognized the school as the Most Humanitarian Friendly University in Africa.

On cultism, Mkpa said that 39 suspected cultists have been expelled from the university while others were under investigation. He said ABSU runs a counseling programme for those who renounced cultism and were willing to be redeemed.

The vice chancellor equally disclosed that a religious group known as the Thunderbolt Preachers was recently banned on campus for pleading for expelled cultists. “We proscribed the organization because we felt they had sympathy for the expelled cultists,” he said.

The vice chancellor said that ABSU’s 2009 Post UME-Screen exercise would hold as scheduled on Monday, July 6, and Thursday, July 9 despite the on-going ASUU strike and warned candidates who applied for admission into the school to beware of fraudsters who have printed the forms for sale. He said the forms are only filled online.

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State (right) having a handshake with Dr Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra State at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, recently. Photo: Ike Wigodo.