- Students petition Federal Government for intervention against persistent sexual harassment
- Students express frustration over lack of action despite previous panels indicting culprits
A group of students from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka held a protest on Thursday, addressing concerns of sexual harassment and intimidation within the campus.
Mostly comprised of female students, they demanded the release of the Prof. Obi Oguejiofor panel report, which implicated certain staff members, from the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone. Additionally, the students lodged a petition with the Federal Government, seeking intervention to counter the ongoing issue of persistent sexual harassment at the institution.
One of the students, who gave her name simply as Ugonna, said, “The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone, set up the Prof. Obi Oguejiofor panel to look into cases of sexual harassment when he assumed office, but before then, other panels had been set up that tried and equally indicted the culprits, yet, nothing was done.
“Why are they not being punished or sacked? Why is the VC sitting on and hiding the Oguejiofor panel report? Even the married women among us are not free from harassment,” she added.
In their remarks, the students threatened to make the institution ungovernable if the Vice Chancellor and the management failed to sack the indicted lecturers within two weeks.
One said, “This issue has become an everyday affair in UNIZIK and the VC has refused to act on it.
“The ugly thing about it is that when the issue comes up, the indicted lecturers will go and start rolling on the ground before the VC and he will pardon them. They will now start boasting that nothing will happen. It’s so unfortunate.
Another opined, “The students, we believe, got the morale from the University of Calabar issue where the HoD was suspended and they are now querying why the same treatment cannot be given in UNIZIK.”
According to a memo signed by Deputy Registrar Ogonna Nwokeke and observed by our correspondent, a meeting is scheduled for noon among the department’s key officials to discuss this matter. Despite the Vice Chancellor’s recent acknowledgment of the issue at the institution, he emphasized that his administration is actively combatting the problem. Notably, a lecturer within the Law Faculty was recently dismissed due to such concerns.
Efforts to reach the Vice-Chancellor for comment were unsuccessful due to an unresponsive telephone line. However, Emmanuel Ojukwu, Media Aide to Esimone, confirmed the establishment of a stringent sexual harassment committee within the school to address the matter. Ojukwu further noted that the challenge lies in the reluctance of students who make allegations to testify before the panel.
He said, “We have a sexual harassment committee headed by a professor and UNIZIK is very strict when it comes to protecting students. If there is any case of sexual harassment, it will be treated very strictly and there will be consequences.
“First and foremost, there is no protest going on, maybe, there are some students silently agitating over one issue or the other.
“All cases of sexual harassment that were known to the institution, the institution has brought the culprits involved before the panel and cautioned them by giving them letters of warning and removing them from any official position they were holding.
“The reason for this is that the institution wanted the students who made the allegations to come forward, but they refused, so that is the hindrance. You know, the university has to be careful so that it does not miscarry justice, because if the lecturers concerned go to court, it will be a liability on the school.
“This is because the students who lay complaints don’t usually come forward to testify and what the institution has done is to warn the lecturers pending when the students would come to testify.
“The VC is meeting this afternoon with all the staff concerned to warn them that any act of intimidation or harassment will not be tolerated,” he concluded.
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