Professor Richard Akindele, the Obafemi Awolowo University ( OAU ) lecturer in the middle of the sex-for-marks controversy has allegedly go...
Professor Richard Akindele, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) lecturer in the middle of the sex-for-marks controversy has allegedly gone into hiding, Punch reports.
A phone call of Akindele demanding sex from a female student in order to pass her in a course was leaked on the internet.
The school has said it has set up a committee to investigate the issue.
Visiting the school, Punch found that the lecturer is absent from his office, and has been since the phone call was leaked.
A lecturer who spoke to reporters said:
The prof is not in the office. He has not been coming since his alleged conversation with a female student went viral. I don’t know where he is, but he has finished his sabbatical and has come back to the campus before this scandal broke out.
The school’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, on the other hand, said he’s unable to speak on whether Akindele has gone into hiding on not. He said:
For now, the prof. has finished his sabbatical, but he has some accumulated leave. It is only his head of department that can say categorically if he has been coming to the office or not.
I don’t know if he has gone into hiding because he is not a criminal. We are still investigating the allegations levelled against him. He has not been convicted and he is not before any court of competent jurisdiction.
We have set machinery in motion to identify the characters in the audio tape. Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is the best ICT university in Nigeria and we have the apparatus to determine the vanity or otherwise of the audio tape.
If any student comes out to tell the university that certain things happened to them, the university will investigate it. As a university, we don’t rely on speculations, neither do we dwell on rumours. But if we receive a formal complaint from anybody, either student or worker, that has to do with harassment – whether sexual, political, social or religious – we will take it up. But there must be a complaint before we know what to do.
The girl that recorded the audio, we are still working on her identity and when she comes forward, we will know. But it won’t be in the interest of members of the panel to pre-empt that. However, they have started sitting on the issue
The post Sex-for-Marks Scandal: Colleague says OAU Lecturer has not been to the Office Since Audio Clip went Viral appeared first on .
// //
