This was announced in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Abiodun Olarewaju, titled, ‘Sexual harassment: OAU dismisses another lecturer’.
A senior lecturer in the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Adebayo Mosobalaje, has been dismissed for ‘sexual misconduct’ by the school authorities.
This was announced in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Abiodun Olarewaju, titled, ‘Sexual harassment: OAU dismisses another lecturer’.
The statement read, “In its avowed determination to rid the University of any form of sexual intimidation, harassment and, or coercion, the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has dismissed another lecturer who was found guilty of sexual demeanor against a female student.
“The decision to dismiss Dr. Adebayo Mosobalaje of the Department of English Language in the Faculty of Arts was taken by the University Council at its last sitting on Tuesday, September 7th, 2021.
“Having exhaustively deliberated on the report of the Joint Committee of Council and Senate, which investigated the case of sexual harassment against Mosobalaje, the University Council, unambiguously declared its zero tolerance to sexual harassment in any form or guise and, accordingly, applied the appropriate University sanctions for such an offence as contained in the University regulation.”
Since 2018 when the story of sexual harassment allegations against a professor of accounting at the university’s faculty of administration, Richard Akindele, went viral, the institution has regularly been in the news for similar reasons.
Akindele, who was dismissed by the university, was also found guilty and sentenced to two years imprisonment following his prosecution by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). He has since been released.
There is also the unresolved case of a lecturer of International Relations, Bisi Olaleye, and another at the school’s Centre for Distance Learning, Monday Omo-Etan.