Gabriel Dike
The sex-for-admission scam rocking the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has claimed another lecturer, Dr Samuel Oladipo, who was suspended on Tuesday by the university management.
Dr Oladipo, who is a lecturer in the Department of Economics, was featured in the second stream of the video recording allegedly demanding for sex in exchange for admission from an undercover British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter in a report titled “Sex-for-Admission.”
On Monday, UNILAG management suspended Dr Boniface Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Faculty of Arts, who was caught in first in the 30-minute video recording by the BBC.
The Vice-Chancellor of UNLAG, Prof Ouwatoyin Ogundipe, confirmed the suspension of Dr Oladipo by the university management, adding that he would face a panel.
Prof Ogundipe told our correspondent that Dr Oladipo was suspended today (Tuesday) for the same offence with Dr Igbenehu.
On the insinuations making the rounds on the campus over the non-suspension of Prof Segun Awonsi, who was also accused of sexual harassment by a former female student, the VC said the cases were different because his accuser failed to respond to the invitation by the university management.
Dr Oladipo who specialises on Economic Development, has six research works to his credit and one project. His recent article, which he co-authored with C. Ogboni is titled: ”Stock market and economic growth: The Nigerian experience”, published August 2019.
Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) UNILAG branch, Dr Dele Ashiru, described the sex-for-admission scandal by two of his members as unfortunate and tragic.
According to him, the allegations against Dr Igbenehu and Dr Oladipo were sex-for-admission and not sex-for-grades and urged members to refrain from any act that could tarnish the image of the university.
His words: ”The entire episode is unfortunate and tragic because lecturers are supposed to be loco parentis to the students. My appeal to our colleagues is to refrain from a negative act that can tarnish the image of the university and themselves.”
However, Dr Ashiru debunked the insinuations that the university management spared Prof Awonsi and sanctioned the two other lecturers caught in the BBC video recording, saying their cases were different.
”The insinuations are not correct. The evidence is also not comparable with the recent scandal. The university management was poised to sanction Prof Awonsi but it was the person (accuser), who allegedly did not show up to lend credence to the allegation.
”ASUU as a body is against any illegal act and we will not support such. The suspension of Dr Oladipo today (Tuesday) was because his recording was just made public. Our expectation is that the two-fingered in the video are given a fair hearing,” Dr Ashiru stressed.
The sex-for-admission scandal involving the two senior lecturers was the subject of discussion among UNILAG staff and students.
When newsmen visited the offices of the two lecturers, it was under lock and key and none of their colleagues could explain their whereabouts while students claimed they saw them last on Friday.
The trending video chronicled cases of sexual harassment of female students by some lecturers in some West African universities including UNILAG and University of Ghana, in exchange for admission.