Students demand sack of lecturer in sex –for- grades scandal

Urge victims to speak up

As condemnation mounts over the sex-for-grades scandal allegedly involving embattled lecturer of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr Boniface Igbenegbu, students have called for his immediate sack and prosecution.

They also appealed to victims of sexual harassment from lecturers to speak up so that such persons can be brought to book to stem the tide.Chaba Emmanuel said,  “ This is nice because what the lecturer was tantamount to rape as it has a mental implication on the student for life. I feel the man should not even get his job back and he should face legal action.”
 
Opeyemi Oyedele, an aggrieved student, demanded the lecturer be dismissed. In her words,  “UNILAG should not just suspend the man, he should not be dismissed outrightly.Another student, simply identified as Victor, said,  “The university should establish a body that will protect students and not just female students.” He concluded that lecturers have lost touch with the ethics of their job and this should be revisited.
 
Some lecturers also joined in the condemnation saying Igbenegbu’s action was a dent on the teaching profession. Adeyemo Ashraff from Fountain University, Osogbo said, “Both the lecturer and the student are damaged, the society needs to correct the lecturer and the student. It is part of hazards of the job; i think, once you work in a particular place, you tend to imbibe the norms of the place, but why should people imbibe the wrong things? People should learn to report when these things happen, destroy the person before the person destroys you, do not keep shut about it, there should be a way to tell the world without getting hurt. “
 
On his part, Andy Bello, Business Manager Silverbird Communications, Benin city said, “I will attribute the cause to unchecked trends amongst those in authority, they use their position of power as license to exploit and this is not attributed to race, culture or beliefs. These things go on because there has not been any scapegoat and the new recruits in the system follow suit. I will suggest that the culprits face stiffer sanctions not only in the academic sphere and rules should be enforced, so that everyone loathes it.”

Bunmi Ohis, a media publicist said, “The media publicity alone is traumatising not only for the perpetrators but also family members of the perpetrators.  However, the society should be purged from the ailment of stigmatisation, everyone is ready to condemn such persons; whether prey or predators and giving them no chance to be remorseful We will be making them victims and encouraging them to predate and sadly at their peril.