Police keep mum on arraignment of UNILAG lecturer

THE Lagos State Police Command has failed to provide information on the arraignment of a lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Kadiri Akeem Babalola, who was accused of raping a 20-year-old female student of the school in 2023.

Oga Lecturer contacted the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Benjamin Hundeyin for an update on the case. However, text messages sent to his phone number on November 20 and January 24 have yet to be replied to at the time of filing this report.

Babalola, an Associate Professor, was accused by the student of raping her on August 16, 2023, when she visited his office to sort out issues concerning her results.

A Non-Governmental Organisation , Inclusive Social Welfare and Empowerment Foundation (ISWEF), got involved and reported the case to the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, after which a warrant was issued for Babalola’s arrest.

Hundeyin also confirmed the incident via his official X handle in September, saying the lecturer would be arraigned “in the coming days.”

However, the following week, Hundeyin said that the arraignment was being stalled due to Babalola’s ill health.

Sexual harassment has been a recurrent issue in Nigerian universities, and female students are mostly the targets.

A survey carried out by the World Bank in 2018 showed that 70 per cent of Nigerian female graduates were sexually harassed by classmates and lecturers as students.

“The effects experienced by victims were depression and perceived insecurity on campus,” the report read.

Although the Minister of Education Tahir Mamman has threatened to deal decisively with lecturers and other university members involved in sexual harassment, the Nigerian government has failed to assent to a bill criminalising the act, which was passed by the National Assembly nearly four years ago.

The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Institutions and for Matters Concerned Therewith 2019,” was sponsored by former Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege and 106 other senators. It proposed a 14-year jail term for offenders.

However, former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari did not assent to the bill till he left office in May 2023, and his successor, Bola Tinubu is also yet to pass the bill, despite several calls by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to that effect.