Lecturer sacked for hugging female student from behind

The Kaduna State University, KASU, has terminated the appointment of Dr. Idowu Abbas of the Geography Department, over allegations of sexual harassment.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the school, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa, announced this in a statement in Kaduna on Friday, January 15. Ashafa also announced the promotion of 12 other lecturers of the school.

According to Ashafa, the university’s Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee, chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), investigated the alleged sexual harassment against the lecturer. The report of the investigating committee was presented at the 217th Management Meeting of the institution on January 12.

He said that the management dismissed Abbas from the service of the university and directed that all students under his supervision be reassigned to a decent lecturer in the department.

“According to the report, Abbas confessed in his testimony to have touched and hugged a female student he was supervising her project from behind against her will when she went to his office to discuss her project.

His testimonies also revealed other nasty and randy misbehaviour he exhibited to the student.

This gross misconduct violated Section 8.7 Paragraph (f) of the Administrative and Academic Regulations in Kaduna State University.

The regulations state that ‘victimisation/harassment of students through examination mark is punishable by dismissal and termination of appointment,” he said.

The deputy Vice-Chancellor described Abbas’ earlier resignation as “null and void.”