OAU Sacks Professor Over Sex-for-mark Scandal

The Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has dismissed Prof. Richard Akindele who was allegedly involved in a sex-for-marks scandal.

The Vice Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, announced Akindele’s dismissal in a statement on Wednesday in Ile-Ife.

Ogunbodede had, on April 19, confirmed Akindele’s suspension pending the findings of the investigative panel.

A student undergoing the Masters of Business programme, Miss Monica Osagie, had released a recorded telephone conversation, which went viral, in which the lecturer, identified as Akindele, demanded five rounds of sex to enhance Monica’s marks.

Ogunbodede said that the University Senate at its meeting on June 14 considered the committee’s findings that Akindele had inappropriate relationship with his student.

He said this was established through their conversation in the audio recording, his reply to the query, the oral evidence and the printed ‘WhatsApp conversations’ tendered before the committee.

The vice chancellor said Akindele had acted in a manner that compromised his position as a teacher and examiner, in that his conversations with Monica Osagie were about examination scores and inducement of favour for the alteration of examination scores.

Ogunbodede said: “He offered to change Miss Osagie’s purported “33%” result to a pass mark in consideration for sexual favours; this was established in the audio recording which he admitted.

“His claim that Miss Osagie knew that she had passed with a score of ‘45’ but was seeking to score an ‘A’ and that this led to him being sexually harassed by Miss Osagie cannot be supported by any evidence.

“From the evidence, Miss Osagie had no idea that she scored ‘45’, a pass mark as later claimed by Professor Akindele, although she later found out she did not fail the course.

“Professor Akindele’s claim that he reported Miss Osagie’s ‘harassment’ to his colleagues cannot be supported by any evidence, as all his colleagues denied it and one mentioned that she only talked about the matter with him after the audio recording was released over the internet.