A series of disturbing allegations leveled against the Head of the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Benin Prof. Anthony Asekhauno, accusing him of raping and sexually assaulting multiple students.
The allegations surfaced on social media platform X, with several students coming forward to share their harrowing experiences.
Leading the accusations was user @AlexVivyNnabue, who wrote: “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. They even made him HOD and allowed him to do whatever he likes. He didn’t let my set do an official dinner because he wanted us to pay him to do it.”
Another user, @Feyi_Peters, recounted a chilling incident of attempted rape, alleging, “This same man almost raped me and my friend in his office on a Sunday evening…We got to faculty and saw him, he was looking for ways to take one person upstairs, then he took my friend, after sometime I called her and her voice was shaky, she was crying.”
@Azeta_Sonia shared her ordeal of missing scripts until Dr. Odia took over as HOD, stating, “Funny how I kept having missing scripts that I had to rewrite till 3rd year cuz of this same man. My offense, I didn’t follow him to staff club.”
– Sêx-For-Grades : UNIBEN lecturer accused of sêxually aššaulting his female students. 1/2 #Thread pic.twitter.com/D3dOn3AyF3
— Postsubman (@Postsubman) May 27, 2024
The allegations sparked outrage on social media, with users like @PinkRubbiez claiming, “Anything they said that Tony did, multiply it by 200. He’s the most depraved of them.”
While some expressed shock at the brazen acts described, others questioned the lack of concrete evidence. @Shile_matrix advised, “Students should have learned to play smarter and start producing undeniable evidences and not just mere accusations, smart watches can record these days, make video footages, take screenshots of chats. If we start doing this, they will stop.”
@theotherayo added, “It’s so sad reading this, what makes it worse is when you realize calling him out is really all we can do, he might go scot-free and do it again.”
Calls for action intensified, with @ReformerOluseun tagging @PoliceNG, stating, “This claim about the lecturer might interest you to be a point of starting Investigation and prosecution if the claims are valid. We need to make this country a sane Society. Educational institutions are meant to instill values in students, not to expose them to Assault.”
@Adasu_d_gr8 also joined, “I hope the man will be arrested immediately”
@_nonconformist1 commented, “That girl’s story was so so shocking. Such brazen act of r@pe and the guy is proud about it. But guess what, nothing will happen to him.”
@Banana10yz: “This kind of people no suppose dey live with us I swear”
This is a visceral reaction expressing that individuals accused of such acts do not deserve to be among civilized society.
@The_Ajumma shared her own experience, “I remember when my project supervisor then was pimping me out to his friend who was also my lecturer. He said if i didn’t go out with his friend he wouldn’t look at my project. The friend on the other hand kept hitting on me.”
@HassanA7147 wrote, “The lecturers are heartless and shameless Sorry about your experience but make una too dey wear better clothes Your dressings dey intimidate some lecturers too If they doesn’t see any part of your body…”
Upon calling the Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, he asserted that this was the first hearing of the case and no official complaints have been made.
The University of Benin issued an official statement on the matter through its PRO, DR. Benedicta Ehanire stating “A trending on -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. Management is already looking into the matter and will release a statement as soon as the facts are known.”
