A lecturer at the University of Lagos has been caught on camera making sexual demands to offer admission to a ‘student’.
The lecturer was exposed in a 13 minutes video by BBC Africa where an undercover journalist, Kiki Mordi, disguised as a 17-year-old admission seeker. The investigation is part of a broader one that uncovers the sex for grade crises in West African Universities.
The lecturer, Boniface Igbeneghu, is a former sub-dean of Faculty of Art and head pastor of local Foursquare Gospel Church. Mr Igbeneghu invited the ‘admission seeker’ to his office for ‘tutorials’ and at their first meeting asked: “how old are you?”.
After responding, the lecturer started commenting on her appearance.
“Don’t you know you are a beautiful girl? Do you know I am a pastor and I am in my 50s but if I want a girl of 17 years, all I need is a sweet tongue and put some money,” he said.
Documentary: From the documentary published on Facebook by BBC Yoruba and seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the lecturer invited the ‘student’ for a second meeting where they held prayer session together.
After the prayer, he simply asked: “what age do you start knowing men. Be assured that your mother will not hear.”
While the reporter was yet to respond, Mr Igbeneghu described the secret place where lecturers meet to “touch students breast” at the staff club of the university.
“They call the place cold room,” he said. He then explained that ladies must pay to have good grades.
At the last visit, he told the undercover journalist that if she truly wants admission in UNILAG, “she must be obedient”.
“Do you want me to kiss you? Switch of the light, lock the door and I will kiss you for a minute. That’s what they do in cold room.”
The lecturer went to the bathroom and upon his return, he locked the door, switched off the light and embraced the ‘admission seeker’.
“You are too stiff. I can call you to come any day. If you don’t come, you know you are gone,” he threatened the undercover journalist.
This revelation is coming a year after a student of Department of English, accused a professor of the same university of sexual harassment. In May 2018, Joy Nwanna, a student of the institution, accused Olusegun Awonusi, a professor of English and former Vice-Chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, of “habitual sexual harassment”.
UNILAG silent: When contacted, the university spokesperson, Taiwo Oloyede, told BBC that the institution has zero-tolerance for sex scandal.
She did not provide any response to the “cold room” allegation. When contacted on Monday, she did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES calls and text messages.
Pix: NUC logo
