By Damilare Adeleye
Lagos— The management of Anchor University of Lagos, a private higher institution of learning owned by Deeper Life Bible church, has refuted a claim of sexual harassment of one of its female students.
A student of the university, Evangel Ganiyu, had earlier called out the management after allegedly experiencing sexual harassment from a labourer working in the school.
Evangel, tweeting through her X handle @dragana, said she woke up only to feel the weight of another person beside her and was shocked to see an unskilled labour worker half naked beside her.
She said she immediately shouted for safety and alerted hostel workers which later led her to identify the person after all the unskilled workers were paraded.
She identified the suspect as Uche Okoro, whom she said he immediately denied the allegation until another student came to identify him for harassing her too sometimes.
Meanwhile, a statement issued on Sunday, Samuel Ighalo, the university’s Public Relations Officer, dismissed the claim and insinuation of cover-up, adding that the accused worker was never a staff member of the university.
The university’s image maker also labelled the female student as a ‘serial offender’ who is already facing disciplinary committee for various misconducts including stealing and examination malpractices.
The statement read, “The incident happened on Saturday,28th September 2024. An unskilled worker hired by a contractor handling the renovation and restructuring of one of the female halls of residence was caught in the room of the said student half naked. AUL is not in session but we just finished the series of holiday programmes, among which are ATS, trainee ICAN students and summer school programmes. According to the lady, she screamed when she woke up to find this worker by her.
“After interrogations from the Porters, Hostel Supervisor and the security unit staff, the Hostel Supervisor, Mrs Grace Abodunde, brought the case to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Samuel Oye Bandele in company of the girl.
“The student was asked to explain what happened to the VC and further interrogations were made:
VC: Were your clothes on?
Student: Yes sir
VC: Were you touched?Student: I don’t know
VC: Why don’t you know? How old are you?
Student: 18 years.
VC: So you should know. You are not a 2 year old that would not know if a man had carnal knowledge of you as your clothes were untouched. We need to hear what happened from you so that we can make our reports to the Police. Mind you, the boy is not our staff, we need to investigate from our own end before handing him over to the Police.
Student: I don’t know sir.VC: Since you don’t know, maybe we should take you to our health center to carry out tests.
“The student started laughing and behaving strangely in the presence of the VC and the Hostel Supervisor.
“The VC was surprised to see her disposition. He then asked her to give him the number of her father in order to report the case to him. The call was not connecting and the VC queried her whether it was a wrong number she gave, which she denied. The VC then said that the the boy will be handed over to the police, while she will also face the university’s disciplinary committee where the proper investigation would be carried out.
“This is the truth of what happened. No one is trying to sweep anything under the carpet. The boy is not a staff of the university, so why should we cover up for him?
“The said student has been discovered to be a serial offender. She was alleged and reported by her roommate for stealing in which she was given a warning. She was caught few days ago, during the just concluded examinations with GST screenshot questions which should not be in the custody of student. The Invigilator/lecturer impounded her laptop as it is a case of examination malpractice with the case still ongoing.
“It can be assumed that she is already aware of the implications/penalties of the offences committed and one can see why she has decided to play the sympathy card by twisting a case that is still been investigated.
“Anchor University has zero tolerance to sexual assault. We do not tolerate or condone this despicable and ungodly act. The Vice-Chancellor is at the fore front in fighting against such.”