The management of Federal Polytechnic Ile Oluji, Ondo State, has rusticated the President of the Students Union Government in the school, Rolland Olamilekan, for two semesters for exposing the sexual harassment of a female student of the institution by a staff member.
The staff member, Mr Banji Aina, who works in the school’s administration unit, had been harassing and threatening the National Diploma 1 Science Laboratory Technology female student named Blessing Ulebe for weeks, vowing to make life difficult for her in the school, except she gave in to his sexual advances.
To make good his threat, Aina sourced and got Ulebe’s mobile number and began bombarding her with calls and even traced her to her hostel of residence one night in order to actualise his goal of having sex with her.
Frightened at the uninvited presence of the administrative staff member of the polytechnic in her room on the night of February 8, 2022, and fearing that the worst could happen, Ulebe quickly alerted her friends to her situation.
Her friends in turn escalated the matter until it got to the knowledge of Olamilekan and his fellow SUG executives.
The students’ leader quickly mobilised a few comrades and arrived at Ulebe’s hostel at about 8:37 pm that night to intervene and rescue the young lady.
But the events that followed that incident have not only exposed the management’s tradition of turning justice on its head but also opened a can of worms into the large-scale sexual harassment of female students going on in the school for a long time.
“I received a call from one of our colleagues on the night of February 8, 2022, that a staff member was attempting to rape a female student and immediately rush to the place with some of my executives.
“Upon getting there and confirming that the information was true, I invited the staff member to come out of the female student’s room for us to talk and resolve the situation but he refused and instead called some guys to come and confront me.
“When he eventually came out of the room to meet with us, I asked him what he was doing at the lady’s place at 8:37 pm.
He claimed that she was sick and had called him to come and be with her.
But when the lady was asked if this was true, she denied being sick or inviting him to her hostel.
“This led to an argument between me and Mr Aina. However, he later pleaded with me not to let the management of the school hear about the matter.
“But the following morning, the story changed. I was accused by the school management of harassing and slapping Mr Aina.
Other staff members of the school ganged up to accuse me of falsely accusing and assaulting the admin staff member.
“I tendered several pieces of evidence before the management to prove that I and my team never assaulted Mr Aina and that he was the one who attempted to rape a female student but they ignored everything and turned the matter against me.
“The school rusticated me for two semesters for exposing an attempted rape and other cases of sexual harassment of female students by staff,” he said.
Other Cases Of Sexual Harassment
Investigations by SaharaReporters revealed that apart from Mr Aina, several more staff members of the federal polytechnic openly sexually harass and threaten female students without any form of sanctions by the school’s management.
For instance, in audio recordings and WhatsApp chats, SaharaReporters discovered how one Mr Peter Olowookere, a staff member of the medical unit of the school, constantly threatened to “destroy” the lives of female students, who failed to give in to his sexual advances.
In a WhatsApp chat with a student, Olowookere said, “You will not graduate from this school. You are really in trouble.
I have called so many people and sent your message to them. I am just laughing at you here. Olosho (slang for prostitute).
“I have your file. With all the diseases you have, you have infection symptoms, all the people that have had sex with you, I just pity them.
I will block you now. Thunder fire you (curse word).
“You are going to ND2 now, I have your details. Olosho.”
In a recorded telephone conversation with another female student he was sexually harassing; Olowookere could be heard in Yoruba language saying, “I will destroy your life.
It seems you don’t know me; I will destroy your life. I have the right to go through the files of people who have infections.
I will use everything I have including the job I am doing to destroy your life. You don’t seem to know what is wrong with you.”
Despite the gravity of his actions and the matter reported to the management of the polytechnic, SaharaReporters discovered that no form of punishment had been handed down on Olowookere and several other staff members like him, who continue to sexually harass female students of the school.
“We have lodged several other complaints to the management but nothing has been done,” Olamilekan revealed.
“I once caught a lecturer in his office with a female student around 9:00pm and reported the incident but up till now, no action has been taken on the matter.
“The lecturer later brought four guys to my house to threaten me.
I reported to the management again but nothing was done,” he added.
Olamilekan’s rustication led to a protest by students in the school on Tuesday with the National Association of Nigerian Students at the federal and state levels intervening for the decision to be rescinded by the management of the polytechnic.
Though the school promised to review its decision, the students’ union president remains rusticated for two semesters and may eventually be expelled for exposing large-scale sexual harassment of female students by staff members of the school.
Management Reacts
Rector of the institution, Prof Emmanuel Adedayo Fasakin, when contacted by SaharaReporters over the issue said, “It is not true that he was exposing sexual harassment.
What happened was that one of the friends of the suspended SUG President went to visit a lady, so the lady received a call that somebody was coming to visit her and that person is a member of her church. She asked the boy to excuse her.
“Shortly afterwards, the staff member arrived at the lady’s place.
I think they attend the same church and he said he hadn’t seen her for some time.
His presence annoyed the boy who called the SUG President and some students.
On getting there, the SUG President asked the man to come out and asked him his mission in the girl’s room.
The next thing he did was to slap the man, I mean the staff member.
The man was wearing glasses and they fell down from his face. So, that was actually what transpired.”
When asked if a male staff member was allowed to visit female students at odd hours, the rector said, “You know we are not residential, it’s a new school. We don’t even have a hostel; they all live outside.
“We set up a panel. The panel brought the report, the composition of the panel includes two students from the students’ union, the welfare officer and the vice president, they were all there in the panel.
All the things they said, the report, everything was presented to the management.
“The management looked at it thoroughly and we also have the student’s handbook.
Even in the handbook, if a student slaps a student, it will also result in suspension, let alone a student slapping a teacher.
A teacher can’t even slap a student. The panel actually recommended an expulsion but I said this is a students’ leader.
Instead of expulsion, we can water it down to suspension for one academic session and that was what we did.
“The next thing this guy did was to involve NANS JCC, they came in about 25 vehicles.
They had guns, machetes and horsewhips, and bombarded the administrative building.
They started beating the staff members and some students. They also held me hostage in my office for several hours.”
On what the management was doing to tackle harassment of female students by staff members, he said, “There is no case that will be brought to us that won’t be treated.”
Sahara Reporters
