By Charles Igbo
Another Law Lecturer has fallen over allegations of se€ual harassment of female students. The Lecturer who fell on the wayside, this time, is Mr Adam Ezeaku of the Faculty of Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
Ezeaku’s fall came fast on the heels of the fall of the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Professor Cyril Ndifon.
Ndifon was suspended, and is facing an investigation after the unprecedented public protest by female Law students of UNICAL against his alleged constant se€ual harassment of the girls. Carrying placards, the female students, backed by their male counterparts, marched to the Vice Chancellor’s office to ask for the sack of the Dean. He has since been suspended after his unsatisfactory answer to a query, and is now undergoing investigation.
Soon after Ndifon’s scandal, the news broke that students of UNIZIK have followed in the foot steps of their UNICAL counterparts.
The difference: they accused their Vice Chancellor, Professor Charles Esimone, of sitting on the report of a Panel headed by Professor Obi Ogujiefor to investigate allegations of se€ual harassment against some lectures.
But in a press release, Dr Emmanuel Ojukwu, Special Adviser to the Vice Chancellor on Public Relations and Special Duties, said there was no protest by the students over se€ual harassment. He also said it was not true that the Vice Chancellor had taken no action over the allegations, the indictment of Ezeaku, and the students’ concerns.
His words: “It is important to state that there was no protest of any sort in the university.
“However, there is an ongoing investigation concerning alleged se€ual harassment by some lecturers.
“The Vice Chancellor immediately removed the affected lecturers from their official positions and issued those affected strong warning letters in the affected departments.”
He, however said the problem was that the students who made the allegations were not forthcoming in appearing before the investigation panel to give evidence.
He disclosed that the Vice Chancellor had summoned a meeting of all the affected departments where he expressed the university’s embarrassment, and read the riot act to staff over unwholesome behaviours, especially, se€ual harassments of students.
Ojukwu, also, disclosed that the Vice Chancellor has made available a dedicated telephone number for students to “report all forms of harassment by staff especially se€ual harassment.”
The Vice Chancellor, Ojukwu said, “further assured students of the renewed determination of the university to protect them and treat all forms of allegations of se€ual harassment with the seriousness it deserves and confidentially.”
Se€ual harassment of female students by Lectures has, in recent times, become a big problem in Universities in Nigeria.
