By Adedoyin Falolu
Following the allegation of sexual harassment levelled against a lecturer in the Mass Communication Department of Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Lagos, Mr Akindele Omotosho, in a report published by Foundation for Investigative Journalism, (FIJ), the accused lecturer has denied the allegation with reasons.
In a chat with Sparklight News on Sunday,Omotosho said that after reading the story, he learnt it was one of his former students ,Daniel Ojukwu that wrote the story. According to the lecturer, he could recall so many issues they had concerning the departmental association of which Daniel was a former speaker of the house while
he served as the staff Adviser. He said that it was true that students do carry his bag to his office anytime they see him but he could not remember forcefully kissing any lady as the story implies.
He also added that the picture which surfaced on the internet was his personal picture which he took in his house and posted over 11 years ago on facebook and that he has never sexually assaulted anyone.
The Lecturer said April 7 as alleged was one of the days examination was ongoing and he needed to drop his bag in his office as usual, so a student came to help him with his bag. He also said that many students entered his office that day.
On why he resorted to verbal abuse to the FIJ correspondent,he explained that he received 3 text messages back to back around 8:39pm, and was wondered why the sender could not put a call through or even put his name in the text message, instead of the corporate name FIJ,which he was not familiar with. He supplied our correspondent with the text message, which is posted below;
Good evening sir,I am a journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism and we got an information that on Thursday, April 7,you kissed a student of yours in your office in violation of the Lagos State criminal act 2011 on sexual harassment. Is this information correct and how do you react?
And this was his response;
“Are you mad ni? Who trained you to be a journalist? Stop texting me or I will report you and your number,Bastard!”
Omotosho claimed he had gotten angry and emotional due to having continually recieved such messages from an unknown number and he felt responding to such a text message could be counter-productive.
Our reporter learnt that the story was released few hours after his response which shows the story had already been written and the text message might just be a way of further implicating him.
In a telephone conversation with the writer of the story and ex-student of the lecturer, Daniel Ojukwu, our reporter sought to know if there was any relationship with him and the lecturer, and he claimed it was just a normal lecturer student relationship and there was never any issues between them as claimed by the lecturer.
Daniel further informed our reporter that the lecturer spoke to the lady in question and there was a recording of such conversation but the lecturer denied that.
Omotosho is of the opinion that the writer of the article is out to punish him as payback for their previous altercations. He believes Daniel is not neutral, because the writer has grudges and has shown a bias against him, leading him to try to tarnish his image and reputation with such a spurious accusation.
As at the time of the release of the story,students had already shared the link of the story round the campus and the accused lecturer had started getting threatening messages -one of the messages from ‘Sugar'(nickname of WhatsApp status) with number (0905992…) who said in a whatsapp chat ,” you go die sha na him I know”.
Further inquiry revealed that the Head of Department and other school officials had gotten a hint of the allegation and might react to the story after investigation which would commence after the Easter holiday.
What Lagos State criminal act says:
The Criminal Law of Lagos State prohibits harassment and describes harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, and other visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature which when submitted to or rejected – (a) implicitly or explicitly affects a person’s employment or educational opportunity or unreasonably interferes with the person’s work or educational performance; (b) implicitly or explicitly suggests that submission to or rejection of the conduct will be a factor in academic or employment decisions; or (c) creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive learning or working environment. Any person who sexually harasses another is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years.