LASU fires 2 senior lecturers – one for sexual harassment; the other, depositing proceeds of school farm produce in her personal bank account
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Two senior lecturers have been fired by the Lagos State University (LASU) over sexual misconduct, financial impropriety, and professional misconduct in decisions ratified at the school’s 143rd Statutory Governing Council meeting on Friday.
The sackings followed a petition by Taofeek Adekunle, a member of the Take It Back Movement, an advocacy for good governance countrywide.
The petition accused one lecturer of sexually harassing students, and the other of engaging in unethical financial practices.
Both accused – Professor Olatunji Tajudeen Fasasi Abanikanda, Dean of the Epe Campus and a senior faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Science; and Khadeejat Kareem-Ibraheem, Coordinator of the Department of Animal Sciences, School of Agriculture – were found guilty after a six-week internal investigation.
A statement issued by LASU Registrar and Council Secretary, Emmanuel Fanu, said both men were found culpable of serious breaches of LASU code of conduct.
The statement explained that Abanikanda was dismissed for multiple violations, including subjecting final-year students to inhumane conditions during fieldwork on the department’s farm.
He was found
- To have forced students to remain on the farm for long hours without breaks, food, or shelter, even during severe weather conditions.
- Guilty of sexual harassment of female students, verbal abuse of colleagues and students, and unauthorised collection of money from members of the university community.
“Dean, School of Agriculture, Epe Campus, Prof. Olatunji Tajudeen Fasasi Abanikannada, was dismissed over multiple allegations, including: Subjecting 400 Level students of the School of Agriculture to inhumane treatment by keeping them on the farm from 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. without break, food, and water even during torrential rainfall that lasted between 4:45 p.m. to after 6:00 p.m., an action prejudicial to the security of the University,” the statement said.
“Sexual harassment of female students of the same school. Subjecting staff members and students to emotional and physical trauma using threats, curses, derogatory utterances, and profane expletives on them, an act unbecoming of a public officer of the University.
“Unauthorised collection of money from staff and students of the School of Agriculture, contrary to university regulations.”
Kareem-Ibraheem was dismissed for dereliction of duty and gross financial misconduct, violating institutional procedures and failing to remit over N10 million in revenue generated from the sale of farm produce, which was instead deposited in her personal bank account.
Both cases, the statement stressed, represent a clear breach of LASU’s 2017 Conditions of Service (as amended) and pose a serious threat to the values and standards the institution upholds.
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