Education

OAU Lecturer Accused of Sex for Marks Has Allegedly Disappeared

The Obafemi Awolowo University lecturer, Professor Richard Akindele accused of demanding sex for marks from his female student has allegedly gone into hiding.

PUNCH Metro visited his office on Thursday, and reports Professor Richard Akindele was nowhere to be seen.

One of the lecturers at his department said the man had been hiding since his leaked conversation with the female student went viral on the social media.

The lecturer, who did not want to be identified, added that the professor was also not at his residence, adding that some members of his church had been going to his house to sympathise with his wife.

He said:

“The prof is not in the office. He has not been coming since his alleged conversation with a female student went viral. I don’t know where he is, but he had finished his sabbatical and has come back to the campus before this scandal broke out.”

Earlier on while reacting to the sex for marks scandal involving her husband, Professor Richard Akindele’s wife denied the allegations against him, and said the devil is out to tarnish her husband’s reputation. Read story here if you missed it.

At the university, there were few OAU lecturers and workers standing in clusters in front of the Faculty of Administration where the department is located.

Most of them refused to speak on the matter.

The OAU Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, said he could not tell if the lecturer had gone into hiding, adding that the committee investigating the matter had started sitting.

He noted that the school was still searching for the student.

Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, Punch reports, said,

“For now, the prof. has finished his sabbatical, but he has some accumulated leave. It is only his head of department that can say categorically if he has been coming to the office or not.

“I don’t know if he has gone into hiding because he is not a criminal. We are still investigating the allegations levelled against him. He has not been convicted and he is not before any court of competent jurisdiction.

“We have set machinery in motion to identify the characters in the audio tape. Obafemi Awolowo University is the best ICT university in Nigeria and we have the apparatus to determine the vanity or otherwise of the audio tape.

“If any student comes out to tell the university that certain things happened to them, the university will investigate it. As a university, we don’t rely on speculations, neither do we dwell on rumours.

But if we receive a formal complaint from anybody, either student or worker, that has to do with harassment – whether sexual, political, social or religious – we will take it up. But there must be a complaint before we know what to do.

“The girl that recorded the audio, we are still working on her identity and when she comes forward, we will know. But it won’t be in the interest of members of the panel to pre-empt that. However, they have started sitting on the issue.”

When asked if the findings of the committee will be made public, Punch reports the PRO said the university would make the findings of the committee public because it has nothing to hide.