Sex-for-mark: Accused OAU lecturer Suffers First Punishment

The Management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, has cut the monthly pay of Mr. Olabisi Olaleye, a lecturer in the institution, over a sexual harassment allegation made by a student, Motunrayo Afolayan

The institution said the accused lecturer had been placed on half salary pending the outcome of the investigation by a panel set up by the university.

Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, the Public Relations Officer of the university, Abiodun Olarewaju, explained that when the incident was reported last year, the management immediately set up a panel to investigate it.

He however said while the report of the panel was still being expected, the management had placed the lecturer on half salary.

“The lecturer has appeared before a panel, headed by Prof Yetunde Ajibade, the provost of Post Graduate College. The lecturer had appeared and the student also appeared before the panel.

“The panel has not concluded its findings but the lecturer has been placed on half salary pending the submission of the report of the panel.

“This is a clear signal that OAU management will not condone any act of sexual harassment, sexual intimidation or any other form of intimidation or sexual assault.

“That was why when she (the student) lodged complained with the authority, irrespective of the fact that her result had been released, the university still set up the panel to investigate the matter,” Olanrewaju said.

Motunrayo Afolayan, a 400 level student in the Department of International Relations in the Faculty of Administration of the university had accused Prof. Olabisi Olaleye, a lecturer in the department, of intimidation because she refused his sexual advances.

Motunrayo Afolayan, who has since lodged a complaint at the university’s Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, alleged that Mr Olaleye failed her in ‘Diplomacy,’ course code IRS 305.

The lecturer teaches the course alongside a female colleague, Omolara Akinyemi.

The allegation comes nearly two years after a widely publicised scandal involving another lecturer in the faculty, Richard Akindele, and a student.

Mr Akindele, a professor of Accounting, was dismissed from the university after he was indicted for demanding sex from a female student to help improve her grades.

A federal court later sentenced the disgraced professor to 24 months in prison.

It was gathered that Ms Afolayan first took IRS 305 during the 2017/2018 academic calendar while in 300 Level but was allegedly failed because he refused to sleep with the lecturer.

During the next academic year, the 2018/2019 academic session, the student registered again for the course but received repeated threats from the lecturer that “she would fail again and again if she refuses to sleep with him.”

A senior official in the faculty, who does not want to be named, said the student sought the intervention of another lecturer in the department, Sunday Omotuyi, on the matter. Ms Afolayan, it was gathered, had feared she could fail again since she was still being pestered by the lecturer.

“But Omotuyi declined to intervene. He said he had approached the same lecturer in 2014 on behalf of another student but Olaleye flared up and insulted him. He even walked him out of his office. He said Omotuyi was too “junior” to talk to him on such matter. He even asked the student to go as far as the office of the vice-chancellor to report him,” the official said.

The official further stated that when other lecturers got wind of the development, they asked for proof of the allegation against the lecturer, and Ms Afolayan played a recorded voice of Mr Olaleye saying – in Yoruba – that, “I promise you would fail this course three times except you sleep with me.”

The recording, reliable sources confirmed was done based on the advice of Ms Afolayan’s friends, who also claimed the lecturer had “tormented” them in a similar manner in the past.

A university source said, “So, she was in Olaleye’s office and just as predicted, Olaleye held her by the hand and began to fondle her. While he was carried away, the lady turned on the voice recording application on her phone and taped all his vulgar words including the threat.”

Ms Afolayan has refused to share the audio record with anyone, saying she was afraid of being subjected to public ridicule.

With officials within her faculty unable to help, she sought outside help, from the Faulty of Law where a female lecturer advised her to report the matter to the university authorities.

As soon as Mr Olaleye learnt that the matter was being escalated, he reportedly released Ms. Afolayan’s result which had been withheld alongside a few others. The released result showed that the student passed.

In response to the student’s complaint, the university authorities set up a probe panel headed by Yetunde Ajibade, the provost of the university’s postgraduate college. Ms Ajibade, a professor, is the first female provost of the college.

The panel has since met with all the concerned parties including Ms Afolayan; Mr Olaleye; Mr Omotuyi, whom the matter was first reported to; Kehinde Olayode, Head of Department, International Relations, among others.

While Mr Olaleye appeared before the panel in November last year, Mr Omotuyi met the panel on January 9.

Ms Afolayan had appeared before the panel accompanied by other female students in the department who also served as witnesses.

Mr. Olaleye, when contacted said he had earlier submitted a written response to a query from the management, where he denied harassing Ms Afolayan.

He said the student had approached him to alter the examination timetable when the rerun course had clashed with another course she takes at 400 level.

“I didn’t know her until the timetable issue came up,” the lecturer said.

“She approached me with two other ladies but I told them I could not help. I only advised them to go and write their 400 level course first, and return to join us in the hall for my course.”

Mr Olaleye said the delay in the release of Ms Afolayan’s result was due to his co-lecturer, who teaches the course with him, being busy with “accreditation issues.”

Asked when he joined the university, Mr Olaleye said he could not recollect. He also couldn’t answer why doesn’t have a doctorate degree after almost 13 years he had reportedly enrolled for it.