Professor Samuel Oye Bandele, the Vice-Chancellor, Anchor University, Lagos, in response to the allegation one of the students, Evangel Ganiyu laid against the institution for its lackadaisical attitude towards sexual harassment, has emphatically denied the occurrence of such in the church owned school. Professor Bandele who is in charge of the Deeper Life owned university, stressed that the school is built on holiness and its standards cannot be compromised for any reasons, neither would it cover any wrong in the like of the one Ganiyu is accusing the school of. “Anchor University is not a haven for unserious students but a place to mold the youths to actualize their dreams and become responsible adults; and be useful to themselves and the nation in general. That is our commitment, that is our goal by the grace of God,” he said. Ganiyu, an undergraduate of Anchor university had tweeted on her social media handle disclosing that one of the labor workers employed by the school to do a few renovation work in preparation for new academic session had sneaked into her hostel during the night almost naked to lay on bed by her side. Upon discovery, she had screamed and sent the perpetrator out of her room and reported to her hostel mistress, in her report, the undergraduate however insinuated that the V.C labelled her a liar and a bad girl. She disclosed that, it won’t be the first time the school will be sweeping such issue under the carpet and had therefore pleaded that justice should be melted out appropriately. The V.C that had come under scrutiny and several accusations by social media users in his defense stated that as at the time he had made inquiry of such accusation, that Ganiyu was not taking the matter to be serious and he had to be firm with her, so that she can know the magnitude of such incidence. According to Prof. Bandele: “It sounds somehow for anybody to say that the school authority would shield a suspect, who allegedly committed a heinous crime,” he expressed in utter surprise. “I make bold to state clearly that a matter of this nature that involves Evangel Ganiyu has never been brought to my attention before; until now. “I will also encourage any of the students including Evangel who claimed to have experienced such assault in the past to speak up for proper investigations by the school authority. “Once, such case is made official, we shall investigate diligently and take appropriate actions thereafter,” the VC promised. “When the Female Hall supervisor, Mrs Grace Abodunde brought the student to my office, I needed to ask some pertinent questions to confirm the veracity of her claims before the matter was reported at the Police station in Ayobo. “At the time of investigation, Evangel was not showing sign of seriousness and I needed to scold her to be serious so that we can get to the root of the matter. “This, exactly, was what we did. As we speak, the matter is being handled by the Police,” he explained. “And at random, we carry out drug tests among our students to ensure that they are free from drug related issues. We are always ready to wield the big sticks if any student is found wanting. Corroborating the Vice- Chancellor’s position, the hall supervisor, Mrs Abodunde also confirmed that this was the first time Evangel would have this kind of experience as a student in this school to the best of her knowledge. “She has not come to me before to make a report of this nature except what happened recently. So, it will be wrong for her to say that the school authority is treating sex harassment with levity. Immediately the matter got to me, I reported officially and the school authority responded immediately,” she further confirmed.
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