The State University of Lagos, LASU, has dismissed two members of the senior academic personnel for accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior, financial improperity and professional misconduct.
The decision, ratified during the 143rd Legal Meeting of the Governing Council of the Institution held on Friday, followed a formal request presented by Taofek Adekunle, a member of the Defense Group Take It Back Movement. The petition accused the affected teachers of sexually harassing students and participating in poor ethical financial practices.
Teachers include Professor Olatunji Tajudeen phaasi Abanikanda, dean of the EPE campus and a member of the Senior Faculty in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, and Khadeejat Kareem-Ibraheem, coordinator of the Department of Animal Sciences, School of Agriculture, were found guilty after a six-week internal investigation.
In a statement issued by the registrar and secretary of LASU of the Council, Emmanuel Fanu, on Thursday, both individuals were found guilty of serious infractions of the University Code of Conduct.
According to the statement, Professor Abanikanda was fired for multiple violations, including submitted to last year students to inhuman conditions during field work in the farm of the department. It was reported that the students were forced to remain on the farm from 6:30 am to 10:00 pm without breaks, food or refuge, even during severe climatic conditions.
The teacher was declared guilty of sexual harassment of students, verbal abuse of colleagues and students, and the unauthorized collection of money from members of the university community, all in the contravention of the institution's behavior regulations.
He said: “The Dean, the School of Agriculture, the EPE campus, Professor Olatunji Tajudeen phaasi abanikannada, was fired by multiple accusations, which include: submit to 400 students of the school of agriculture to an inhuman treatment by keeping them on the farm from 6:30 am to 10:00 pm without rest, and even during a torrent rain that lasted between 4:45 PM, a relentless action, and even during the rainfall that lasted between 4:45 of the 4. harmful to the security of the university.
“The sexual harassment of the students of the same school. They submit staff members and students to emotional and physical trauma using threats, curses, derogatory statements and profane expletives on them, an act of a public official of the University. Unauthorized collection of money from the staff and students of the School of Agriculture, contrary to the University.”
For his part, Kareem-Ibraheem was fired for the abandonment of duty and gross financial behavior.
She was accused of violating institutional procedures and not sending more than N10 million in revenues generated by the sale of agricultural products, which instead deposited in her personal bank account.
Both cases, the statement said, represented a clear breach of the 2017 LASU service conditions (according to amended) and represented a serious threat to the values ​​and standards that the institution defends.