SEXUAL ASSAULT: OAU SACKS ANOTHER LECTURER

A lecturer in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr Adebayo Mosobalaje has been dismissed by the University's Governing Council for an alleged sexual harrasment against a female student.

The University's Public Relations Officer Abiodun Olanrewaju made this known in a statement on Tuesday. According to the release titled "Sexual Harrasment, OAU Dismisses Another Lecturer", the decision to sack the lecturer came up following the report of a Joint Committee of Council and Senate which investigated the case and found him guilty.

The University, in the statement maintained that the judgement served on the lecturer was in line with its commitment to making OAU an institution of higher learning that would be free from all forms of harrasment and intimidation.

The statement reads in part: "In its avowed determination to rid the University of any form of sexual intimidation, harassment and, or coercion, the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has dismissed another lecturer who was found guilty of sexual demeanor against a female student.

“The decision to dismiss Dr. Adebayo Mosobalaje of the Department of English Language in the Faculty of Arts was taken by the University Council at its last sitting on Tuesday, September 7th, 2021.

“Having exhaustively deliberated on the report of the Joint Committee of Council and Senate, which investigated the case of sexual harassment against Mosobalaje, the University Council, unambiguously declared its zero tolerance to sexual harassment in any form or guise and, accordingly, applied the appropriate University sanctions for such an offence as contained in the University regulation.”

The Victim, Ife City Blog, learned had in 2017 visited the lecturer in his office for further instructions regarding her final year project work but was offered something else during the encounter.

Subsequently in 2018, a petition was reportedly filed against the lecturer addressed to the University's Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede who then set up an investigative panel whose final report established the cast against him.

The case will be the second time within three years that an OAU lecturer will be sacked in similar circumstances, after in 2018, a lectuer at the Department of Management and Accounting in the Faculty of Administration, Prof. Richard Akindele was convicted of a sex for mark scandal against a female postgraduate student, Miss Monica Osagie.

Mosobalaje's sacking came barely two weeks after the University inaugurated its Anti-Sexual Harrasment Policy as part of the commorative programmes marking the institution's 60 Years Anniversary.