The Governing Council of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) has exonerated the Vice-Chancellor, Abayomi Fasina, a professor, from the sexual harassment allegations levelled against him by the university’s former Director of Works, Folasade Adebayo.
The council directed Mrs Adebayo, the accuser, to write a letter of apology to the council within seven days.
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In February, the university council set up a committee to investigate the sexual harassment allegations levelled against the VC by Mrs Adebayo and which the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), FUOYE chapter constantly pushed for investigation.
According to a statement by the university registrar, Muftau Ibrahim, the council received the report of the investigative committee and considered it at a meeting on Tuesday.
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The council also said the report found the Chairperson of SSANU-FUOYE, Benjamin Faleye, and Secretary, Ayomikun Aluko, of misconduct for issuing a communique accusing the vice-chancellor of the same allegations.
The university had in December suspended Mr Faleye and Mrs Aluko after accusing them of making ‘unproven’ allegations against the VC without routing the complaints through the university authorities.
The council, however, said it has lifted Mr Faleye and Mrs Aluko’s suspensions with the condition that they forfeit half their salaries during the period of suspension.
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It also asked them to write letters of apology and undertaking to abide by the laws of the university within seven days.
“On the alleged case of sexual harassment levelled against the VC, Abayomi Fasina, a professor, council asked the VC to recuse himself from the meeting to ensure free and open deliberation on the report,” parts of the statement reads.
“The audio recordings were listened to by all council members with the assistance of a translator. Thereafter, Council discussed the report exhaustively though the audio recordings were not subjected to any forensic evaluation and arrived at.
“There was no case of sexual harassment thus confirming the earlier investigation by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) during which investigation Adebayo had made a statement that she was not sexually harassed.
“All documents relied on in the investigation by the Committee were attached to the report (NPF report, audio tapes, their transcripts, correspondences by the Vice-Chancellor and Adebayo, minutes of Management meetings etc).”
The council condemned the recording of the vice-chancellor without his consent.
It also accused Mrs Adebayo of using the recording as a tool for blackmail to have her confirmed as substantive Director of Works.
“Contrary to Adebayo’s allegation that she was removed as Acting Director of Works and Services, her tenure rather expired,” the statement said.
The council agreed to come up with policies on cyber-bullying, use of social media, community and public relations.
The statement also indicated that the Council will set up a Peace and Reconciliation Committee to look into all issues within the University.
Background
The university’s former Director of Works, Mrs Adebayo, had accused Mr Fasina of sexually harassing her and victimising her after she repeatedly rejected his advances.
She provided an audio recording of Mr Fasina pestering her for an illicit relationship, which she said began sometime in 2023.
In the recording obtained by PREMIUM TIMES late last year, Mr Fasina could be heard telling Mrs Adebayo that he would make her happy as long as she made him happy.
In the conversation, he prayed for her, commended her works and threw his advances at her.
“Let me tell you, I’m dying inside for you,” he said, in a mix of Yoruba and English.
When she asked him to stop, he dismissed her saying, “You’re only speaking grammar…Someone said they like you and you’re saying (something else).”
Mrs Adebayo said in the phone recordings: “What I think personally is that it’s not right. We’re married and it’s not the right thing at all…That you need a confidant, that’s not a problem. You know I always look for your interest in terms of administration, I always work on your directives.”
But he said she was only looking at it from a moral and spiritual angle. “You are only looking at it from two angles alone but it goes beyond that,” he said.
“I think you’re looking at it that the two of us are married. See let me tell you…marriage is by chance. If I had seen you before getting married to my wife, do you think I can’t get married to you?”
“Just make me happy, Sade (Mrs Adebayo). Listen, I beg you in the name of God, make me happy, I will make you happy. I won’t say more than that. And things will work out fine,” he added.
When Mrs Adebayo pointed out a cordial relationship she has with his wife and why it is wrong for her to even be the one to “do that to the wife”, Mr Fasina interjected with “Shut up, shut up, that’s what I don’t want you to say.” But she continued; “That is even secondary, the main thing is that I am a married woman and it is not right.”
The VC made it clear he was not going to give up. “I won’t relent o,” he said to which she replied, “That’s always your final word.”
As the phone call ended, he said: “I’m still on my stance, I know you’re stubborn but God will help me on this.”
Mrs Adebayo said her continuous refusal led to Mr Fasina victimising her by issuing unwarranted queries, demoting her and criticising her work ethic.
SSANU wades in
One time during its congress, SSANU-FUOYE resolved to push for an investigation into the alleged harassment against one of their members, Mrs Adebayo.
But they couldn’t take any action at the time because there was no council to report the matter to, according to one member who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES.
President Bola Tinubu had in June 2023 dissolved the councils of all tertiary institutions and only reappointed them a year later in July 2024.
“It’s not possible for the union to write to the vice-chancellor because he was the one being accused,” the SSANU official, a member of the university, said, asking not to be named.
“So we have to wait and allow the federal government to drop the list of the governing council.”
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the union wrote the newly constituted council in July, seeking redress for Mrs Adebayo.
The council, then led by Kayode Ojo, invited the VC Mr Fasina, Mrs Adebayo and the leadership of SSANU to a reconciliatory meeting at the institution’s liaison office in Abuja in September 2024. (Mr Ojo was later replaced with Victor Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) as chairperson of FUOYE council.)
The matter, however, remains unresolved, according to individuals familiar with the situation.
One person told this newspaper that the meeting at one point asked Mrs Adebayo to apologise to Mr Fasina to which she refused.
A day after the ‘unfruitful’ meeting in Abuja, Mrs Adebayo wrote to the council, restating her grievances and noting they were not addressed at the meeting.
She noted in the letter that though she was persuaded to let go of her grievances, her concerns were not “fully addressed.”
She listed the grievances as; false allegation of writing a petition against the VC, false allegation of attempted seduction of the vice-chancellor, and false allegation regarding a construction project at the College of Medicine.
She said: “It was alleged that I authored a petition against the VC, an allegation which is entirely false. I had no knowledge of how the petition came to be, and I am, in fact, a victim of this petition.
“On multiple occasions, I had to travel to Lagos and Osogbo, at great personal risk due to the poor condition of the roads, responding to invitations from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Police Force, all at my own expense.”
She added that the construction for the college of medicine project, for which she was alleged to have authorised, “there is documented evidence confirming that the VC himself requested and obtained a “No Objection” approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement for this project. It is difficult to comprehend why the VC would claim ignorance of this matter.”
SSANU’s continuous push
After a congress held on 25 November 2024, SSANU-FUOYE raised the matter again, calling on the federal government to investigate the allegations against Mr Fasina.
The union also issued a communique signed by the Chairperson, Benjamin Faleye, and Secretary, Ayomikun Aluko.
The union also wrote to the Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa, and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abdullahi Ribadu, over the same allegations of harassment, intimidation and abuse of office against the VC.
Queries and suspension
On 4 December 2024, the university registrar issued queries separately to SSANU-FUOYE Chairperson, Mr Faleye, and Secretary, Mrs Aluko.
The queries were issued after an emergency meeting of the university council held on Wednesday 4 December 2024, according to a copy of the query signed by the registrar and secretary to the council, Mufutau Ibrahim.
The query letters noted that the union leaders addressed a press conference and made ‘unproven’ allegations against the VC without routing the complaints through the university authorities.
“The council reviewed the matter carefully and observed that you caused these weighty allegations to be published by several news media including Sahara Reporters from where the unproven allegations have gone viral in the social media world. As you are aware, the university operates based on the Act of Parliament, Statute rule and regulations all of which guide staff conduct and behaviour’ and guard discipline in the system,” the letter reads in part.
In his response, as seen by this newspaper, Mr Faleye said he had done nothing wrong in his capacity as a university employee.
He noted that the issues listed by the university in the query are union issues and should therefore be directed to the union and not him as an individual.
Days later on 9 December, the university suspended both Mr Faleye and Mrs Aluko for ‘misconduct’ identified in the query, after noting that their response was unsatisfactory.
The suspension letter, signed by the university registrar, Mufutau Ibrahim, also advised them to stay away from the university premises “except otherwise expressed in writing”.
READ ALSO: FUOYE panel investigating VC set to release report
Council, ICPC investigates
In February, the university council set up a committee to conduct comprehensive investigation into the allegations levelled against the VC by Mrs Adebayo and which SSANU, FUOYE chapter, constantly pushed for investigation.
Earlier in January, the ICPC said it had initiated a probe into the allegations against the professor.
The ICPC action followed a petition submitted by a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs), including the Gender Mobile Initiative and Baobab for Women’s Human Rights, Education as a Vaccine, BIGIF, BraveHeart Initiative and Hope Behind Bars.
The groups said their intervention was aimed at eradicating gender-based violence and fostering accountability in public institutions.
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