Dr. Sunkanmi Odubunmi, an Associate Professor of Economics in the Lagos State University (LASU), has allegedly been caught in the web of sexual harassment of one his female students.
Coming barely two weeks after the reported sack of one Professor Richard Akindele of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, the insatiable lust for love advances by varsity dons reared its ugly head again at LASU within the week.
Odubunmi a 1987 graduate of the university and best student in Mathematics For Economics, is said to be a no-nonsense economics lecturer and well respected until the recent bubble busted in the latest development that may have changed the university community perception about his personality.
A report said the Oyo State born professor, is presently at the centre of a sex scandal and examination malpractices involving a young girl (names withheld) of the same department.
Available information stated that the student in question, who had vehemently turned down love advances from the lecturer severally, approached and sought the assistance of a non-government organisation to help track the alleged sexual harassment.
According to reports, “The NGO later involved the LASU security to trap the lecturer, who was supposed to be due for a full professorship a week to the incident,” said our source.
The source revealed that the young lady was equipped with sensitive gadgets such as a pen, belt and eyeglasses all with a camera to record their video and audio conversations.
It was alleged that Odubunmi fell for the trap and invited the lady to his office on a Saturday to rewrite the failed paper and she agreed and reported with all the surveillance apparatus on her while the NGO people also stationed themselves in another office not far from Odubunmi’s with the laptops connected to the spy camera’s on the lady. Left all alone, Professor Odubunmi was said to have given her the papers to write her exams and bolted the office door firmly, while the student got down to writing the papers, the lecturer removed his shirt and started cuddling his student from the back.
The student was said to have become panicky, lost concentration and put up a resistance with the lecturer who later found that the student wore a spy eyeglass.
Having smelt a rat and the plot, Dr. Odunbunmi was alleged to have beaten a retreat, hurriedly dressed up, seized the surveillance glasses and destroyed it.
He was reported to have raised the alarm and varsity security guards that are part of the set up quickly moved in with the NGO team and arrested the enraged lecturer.
A source close to the university’s Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations (CIPPR) confirmed the development, saying that a query had been issued by the management of the institution to Dr. Odubunmiin in line with the disciplinary process of the university.
“The next step is before the Joint Disciplinary Committee of Council and Senate,” the source added.
Dr. Odubunmi was recently drafted into the membership of a committee on Open/Distance Learning & Research Institute constituted by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Lanre Fagbohun.
This is coming barely a month after Professor Olusegun Awonusi, an English Language lecturer at the University of Lagos was alleged to have sexually harassed a female student of the institution.
However, the management of the institution will on Monday disclose to the public report of the Fact-Finding Panel on the allegation of sexual harassment involving Prof Awonusi.
