When Oprah Winfrey gave her speech at the Golden Globes, it inspired a lot of women to speak up about sexual harassment including, a Facebook user Funke Dezarn. She took to Facebook to share the story of how one Dr. Francis Fakoya had harassed her while she was a student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife (OAU).
Following the allegations by the ex-student, the university has released a statement concerning sexual harassment allegations made against the lecturer who has since moved on to lecture at St. George’s University, Grenada.
The statement was released by the university’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju who said that OAU had zero tolerance for any form of harassment. The school where Dr Fakoya now lectures at had prior to this statement released by OAU released their own statement.
In their statement, St. George’s University had promised to look into the issue and take appropriate action while OAU also in their statement said that they considered the allegation very grievous and that they were ready to cooperate with St. George’s University, the alleged victim, and any other group.
Read the statement below:
“The attention of the management of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has been drawn to an allegation of sexual harassment, trending on social media, levelled against one Dr Francis Andy Fakoya, a former lecturer in the Department of Anatomy of our university.
Fakoya had left the services of the university about 15 years ago.
The allegation against him, which purportedly occurred while still in the employment of the university, is considered by the management to be too grievous.
We are prepared to fully cooperate with the Medical School of St. George’s University, Caribbean Island, the alleged victim(s), and or any other group, to fully investigate the allegation and get to the root of the matter.
We wish to inform the general public, particularly the stakeholders in the education sector, that the Management of OAU has zero tolerance for any form of harassment, and most especially, sexual harassment, in whatever guise.
The university also prides itself in having one of the best established Centre for Gender and Policy Studies in the world.
Our students and staff are hereby encouraged to report any form of sexual, material or financial harassment to the university management or to the Centre for Gender and Policy Studies, which is technically and administratively saddled with the responsibility of fighting sexual abuse and gender discrimination, for immediate action.”