From earning a fat salary as a professor of Management and Accounting, at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, Richard Akindele has suddenly find himself without a job.
His offence; Akindele sometimes in April demanded for sex from a student, Monica Osagie in order to upgrade her mark.
The Vice Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede yesterday announced the sack at a press conference in the institution.
About two months ago, Akindele through an audio conversation with his female student, Osagie which went viral online demanded for sex from the latter with a view of upgrading her marks.
However to save the image of the University and to unravel the circumstances that surrounded the whole saga, the institution’s management set up a committee and mandated it to submit its report within a week.
Furthermore, the management issued a query to Prof. Akindele to explain his role after which he was suspended pending the final determination of the case in line with the University regulations.
Although the committee invited the two persons involved, only Professor Akindele could be initially reached and invited. This necessitated the submission of an interim report. However, when the committee eventually succeeded in inviting Ms Monica Osagie, and finally concluded its sittings, it then submitted its final report to the management.
To disabuse the minds of the general public on the issue of an alleged cover-up, the Vice-Chancellor, on two occasions, issued press releases that were personally signed by him. The press releases were maximally published by virtually all the media houses and aired by Radio and Television Stations across the globe.
The Vice Chancellor in a release signed by him, yesterday, said the Governing Council of the institution sacked the lecturer, “having found him guilty of all the charges against him” following findings and recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee set up by the University Senate.
The committee in the reports of its findings established that Prof. Akindele had an inappropriate relationship with his student, Miss Osagie which was confirmed through their conversation in the audio recording; his reply to the query; the oral evidence; and the printed WhatsApp conversations tendered before the committee.
Meanwhile in order to ensure total elimination of further sexual harassment and gender-based assault within the institution, the University management has embarked on activities to curb the menace and thereby provide enabling and conducive environment for learning and teaching.
To achieve this, the VC said the University is creating more awareness and disseminating information on what constitutes Sexual Harassment (SH) within the university and noting the veracity of its concepts.
Also, the management has put in place strategic implementation framework for the SH policy to ensure effective redress mechanisms. It added that it will consistently educate staff and students about their right to seek redress in cases of SH even as a whistle-blower policy is also being developed by the institution.
