Victoria OparaA lecturer at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Tony Asekhauno, has remained silent after past female students of the institution accused him of demanding sexual favours and threatening those who refused his advances with failure, while they were under his tutelage.
In a series of trending posts that went viral via social media on Sunday, May 25, 2024, several female students, who said Asekhauno taught them Philosophy, recounted their experiences while studying at the institution.
One X user with the username Chikamma alleged that the lecturer raped her in his office after failing her three times.
“Tony Asekhuno failed my Logic deliberately 3 times until he raped me in his office in final year and gave me a C. I kept failing because I refused to date him,” she noted.
Another former student on X Uduak Ekpedeme also shared a similar experience.
“Philosophy Tony? Uniben Tony? That bastard told me to be grateful to God for my height, else he would have had me and I was not even in his [department] and Okwe and Kola whose office I was in, laughed at the joke,” she noted.
A third ex-student with username Mercy_Quin said she had yet to collect her university certificate due to the harassment she dealt with at the lecturer’s hands.
Mercy_Quin disclosed that she was in her final year when Asekhauno sent a male student to forcefully bring her into his office. The lecturer singled out her script during exams, refusing to mark it, claiming she had been avoiding him.
Following the allegations, Oga Lecturer contacted Asekhauno seeking reactions over the issue on Wednesday, May 29.
When the reporter introduced herself as a journalist, he said he was busy and would call back later.
“Let me talk to you later, I’m in the class,” he said
However, he subsequently rejected several calls made to him.
Oga Lecturer sent a text message seeking his reaction to the trending issue, but the lecturer has yet to respond until the time of filing this report.
He also ended calls placed by Oga Lecturer to his phone line on Thursday, May 30.
However, when our reporter called Asekhauno the next day with another number, he picked the call and said that he had nothing more to add than what the UNIBEN authorities had said.
“Follow the updates from UNIBEN. They have given updates please. I will soon addresss all of you,” he said, adding in pidgin English, “I dey meeting now,” before ending the call.
Oga Lecturer could not find any statementon the issue on the institution’s website. However, a search on social media platforms indicated that the university had on its Facebook page posted a short statement signed by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Benedicate Ehanire, saying that the management was looking into the matter.
“A trending 0n-line chat, in which a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Benin, is alleged to have committed the offence of sex for grades has been brought to the attention of the management of the university,” the statement reads.
“Management is already looking into the matter and will release a statement as soon as the facts are known,” it concluded.
Sexual harassment has remained a source of concern for students in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Oga Lecturer recently reported that at least 43 lecturers were accused or indicted for sexual harassment between 2018 and 2023.
Less than a month ago, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) Enugu state was caught on tape, trying to have sexual relations with a student.
Most of the female students who accused Asekhauno of sexual harassment said he forced them to accompany him to the staff club, where he perpetrated some of his acts.
Also narrating her encounter with the lecturer, an X user Azeta_Sonia said she re-wrote Asekhauno’s course three times because her scripts were always declared missing.
“Funny how I kept having missing script that I had to rewrite till 3rd year cuz [sic] of this same man. My offense, I didn’t follow him to staff club. When Dr Odia became HOD, I saw the results for the scripts that went missing just as I was about to re-register the course,” she noted.
Many other X users indicted other lectures in the Department of Arts, including Okwe, Kola and Mamudu.
Oga Lecturer also contacted UNIBEN’s Dean of Student Affairs Clement Ighodaro on Monday, May 27, who said he was unaware of the allegations.
“I am just hearing from you now. Can I get back to you? I was in a meeting when you called. I will get back to you,” Ighodaro said.
When contacted two days later, he referred Oga Lecturer to the university authorities.
Oga Lecturer made efforts to contact the school but calls sent to telephone numbers found on the institution’s website online did not go through.