The University of Lagos and the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria have have suspended Dr Boniface Igbeneghu, over the trending video where he is seen sexually harrassing a female student.
Igbeneghu is a senior lecturer and former sub-dean of Faculty of Arts, who is also a pastor of a local branch of the church.
Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, on Monday confirmed that the lecturer had been suspended indefinitely.
He said, “A panel will be set up to investigate the issue.”
Also on Monday, National Secretary of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Ikechukwu Ugbaja, in a statement announced Igbeneghu’s suspension, saying appropriate measures would be taken on the matter.
The statement reads, “The attention of the leadership of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria has been drawn to a video clip trending on social media platforms titled ‘Sex for grades: Undercover in West Africa Universities – wherein a lecturer at the University of Lagos named Boniface Igbeneghu, also described as a pastor in Foursquare Gospel Church, was allegedly involved in sexual misconduct with some female students of the university.
“The general public is hereby informed that as holiness and Bible-believing church, we do not condone such heinous and unscriptural acts among our ministers.
“We totally dissociate ourselves from the purported conduct of Dr Igbeneghu and promise to take appropriate measures as soon as the ongoing investigation is concluded.
“Meanwhile, the pastor in question has been asked to step down from all ministerial assignments.
”Igbeneghu, who is a part-time pastor in the church was allegedly caught on camera demanding sex from an admission seeker in UNILAG.
The lecturer was exposed in a 13 minutes video by BBC Africa where an undercover journalist, Kiki Mordi, disguised as a 17-year-old admission seeker.
The investigation is part of a broader one that uncovers the sex for grade crises in West African Universities.
Mr Igbeneghu invited the ‘admission seeker’ to his office for ‘tutorials’ and at their first meeting asked: “how old are you?”.
After responding, the lecturer started commenting on her appearance.
“Don’t you know you are a beautiful girl? Do you know I am a pastor and I am in my 50s but if I want a girl of 17 years, all I need is a sweet tongue and put some money,” he told her.
From the documentary published on Facebook by BBC Yoruba the lecturer invited the ‘student’ for a second meeting where they held prayer session together.
After the prayer, he simply asked: “what age do you start knowing men. Be assured that your mother will not hear.”
While the reporter was yet to respond, Mr Igbeneghu described the secret place where lecturers meet to “touch students breast” at the staff club of the university.
“They call the place cold room,” he said. He then explained that ladies must pay to have good grades.
At the last visit, he told the undercover journalist that if she truly wants admission in UNILAG, “she must be obedient”.
“Do you want me to kiss you? Switch of the light, lock the door and I will kiss you for a minute. That’s what they do in cold room.”
The lecturer went to the bathroom and upon his return, he locked the door, switched off the light and embraced the ‘admission seeker’.
“You are too stiff. I can call you to come any day. If you don’t come, you know you are gone,” he threatened the undercover journalist.
This revelation is coming a year after a student of Department of English, accused a professor of the same university of sexual harassment.
In May 2018, Joy Nwanna, a student of the institution, accused Olusegun Awonusi, a professor of English and former Vice-Chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, of “habitual sexual harassment”.
When contacted, the university spokesperson, Taiwo Oloyede, told BBC that the institution has zero-tolerance for sex scandal.
She did not provide any response to the “cold room” allegation.
