A Non-governmental organization in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to sue the management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) if the latter’s lecturer caught sexually harassing an undercover reporter posing as admission seeker is not punished, Premium Times reports.
The lecturer, Boniface Igbeneghu, was exposed in a 13 minutes video clip by BBC Africa where an undercover journalist, Kiki Mordi, disguised as a 17-year-old admission seeker.
The investigation is part of a broader one that uncovers the sex for grade crises in universities in Nigeria and Ghana.
The lecturer, Boniface Igbeneghu, is a former sub-dean of Faculty of Art and head pastor of local Foursquare Gospel Church.
In a part of the 52-minute documentary to be premiered on Monday evening, released on social media, the lecturer started by inviting the ‘student’ for a second meeting where they held prayer session together till he asked her for a kiss and romance.
Although the university spokesperson, Taiwo Oloyede, told BBC that the institution has zero-tolerance for such sexual harassment, she did not provide any response to the “cold room” allegation when PREMIUM TIMES contacted on Monday.
However, in a thread posted on Twitter, SERAP called on the university authorities to immediately suspend Mr Boniface within seven days or face legal actions.
“BREAKING: We’re today asking the University of Lagos authorities to promptly & thoroughly investigate allegation of #SexForGrades involving senior lecturer, Faculty of Arts, & head pastor of a Foursquare Gospel Church in Lagos, Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu.“We’re asking UNILAG to immediately suspend Dr Igbeneghu pending the outcome of any investigation & to identify ALL lecturers allegedly involved in this illegality & bring them to justice. If UNILAG fails to do this within 7 days, we’ll take appropriate legal action to compel them,” the advocacy group wrote on its Twitter handle.
