OAU sacked professor associated with sex-for-marks embarrassment

AUTHORITIES of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday dismissed Professor Richard Akindele, who was alleged to have been involved in a sex-for-marks scandal with a postgraduate student of the institution, identified as Monica Osagie.

Announcing the dismissal of Akindele, a professor in the Department of Management and Accounting, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of OAU, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede at a press conference declared that the development was the outcome of the Governing Council’s decision over the sexual misconduct, which trended on social media a few months back. ok

Ogunbodede, who read a prepared statement endorsed by the OAU Governing Council said “around 7th of April, 2018 or thereabout, there was an audio conversation between a man and a lady which was sensationally trending on social media because of its explicit sexual tone.”

According to him, “after a thorough investigation, it was discovered that the said audio conversation was between a lecturer and student of our university who were later identified to be Professor Richard Akindele and Ms Monica Osagie. To save the image of the university and to unravel the circumstances that surrounded the who saga, the university set up a committee and mandated it to submit its report within a week.”

“Last Thursday, 14th of June, 2018, the University Senate considered the committee’s findings that Professor Akindele had an inappropriate relationship with the student, Miss Osagie. This was established through their conversation in the audio recordings, his reply to query, the oral evidence and the printed WhatsApp conversations tendered before the committee.”