The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof Idowu Olayinka, has sounded a note of warning to both the staff and students of the institution and enjoined them to familiarize themselves with the various laws guiding against sexual harassment in the school stressing that ignorance will not be taken as an excuse for anybody found wanting by the law.
The VC spoke on Tuesday 8th October, 2019 on the background of trending media investigation on sexual assault and sex-for-grade scandals in some West African Universities at the quarterly media chat organized by the UI-owned campus radio, Diamond 101.1FM.
Speaking on the efforts put in place by the institution to prevent sexual harassment by either the students or the staff of the institution, Prof Olayinka noted that two related but different bodies had been in place to check such excesses and give room for students to report cases of sexual harassment to the school authority.
He said two policies: Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Gender Harassment Policy which had been operating in the last 15 years were recently reviewed to capture recent peculiarities in the areas of sexual harassment.
He appealed to both the students and staff to take advantage of the centres and the policy being operated to make sure that they don’t suffer in silence, adding that staff in one of the centres in the institution was recently expelled after failing to give satisfactory defence to an allegation of sexual harassment levelled against him.
He therefore warned that, “If anyone flouts the regulation that is put in place, he or she should be made to face the music. There are also instances where male lecturers will also be harassed. Even though most of the times, female students are at the receiving end. We have zero-tolerance for harassment.”
