By Sumaila Ogbaje
Protesters under the aegis of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations Against Corruption, has called for suspension of the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Abayomi Fasina, over allegation of sexual harassment.
The leader of the group and Founder, Association for Students’ Social Welfare, Victor Adetola, made the call on Thursday, at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.
The protesters, who armed with placards with various inscriptions such as: “Ekiti deserves better”, “Protect our women”, among others, argued that the VC cannot be in the office while being probed for sexual harassment allegations.
The embattled VC has been under investigations over allegations made in a leaked voice note regarding a sexual harassment case against one of his married subordinates.
Speaking to journalists after submitting a petition to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, the leader of the protesters, Adetola, said that suspending the VC would give room for thorough and fair investigations into the matter.
He said the issue would be festering if there was no thorough investigations, adding that there was need for the university to be sanitised.
According to the prostester, there is an investigation that is going on and was first given a three-week ultimatum.
“After that, they requested for another three weeks ultimatum, even inclusive of the governing council, and for the past six months, nothing has been done.
“In fact, one of the most critical issues that is happening is the sexual harassment that has happened to one of the married assistant directors in that school.
“Specifically, it is necessary that the leader of the university step down first, or the governing council make him to relieve that position first so that independent investigation can be carried out on all the petitions that we have written.
“We have brought to the Ministry of Education today and other agencies will be copied so that independently, so that we, generations that are coming up, will be able to have an environment and a society that we know that is just and egalitarian,” he said.
