7th October, 2019
Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has reacted to BBC’s story on sex-for-grade scandal that has rocked public universities in West African countries.
In the BBC’s report, a senior lecturer, Dr Boniface Igbeneghu from the faculty of Arts, a former sub – dean in the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the head of a local Foursquare Gospel Church was caught harassing a female student sexually, promising good grades in return. This truth came to bare after 9 months of interviews with current and former students.
The secret investigation took more than a year by BBC, which has been secretly filming the University of Lagos and that of Ghana. In UNILAG, Dr Boniface was caught on camera telling his victim to ”Switch off the light, lock the door and I’ll kiss you for one minute”
Several students had alleged that they have been harassed by Dr Boniface, which made BBC send an undercover journalist to him, posing as a 17 year old secondary school graduate seeking admission, of which he fell like a pack of cards.
However in Ghana, Dr Paul Kwame Butako from the College of Education was the culprit discovered after female students pointed him out in series of interviews. An undercover journalist who posed as a final year student, interested in doing masters was then sent to him and he also did not escape same fate that befell his colleague in Lagos.
“As a society, we cannot allow a trend that is psychologically abusive to young women to thrive. In fact, that’s a direct opposite of what a sound educational system represents,” he said on his Facebook page.