Alleged rapist, Baruwa, not our employee, UNILAG insists

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello, has insisted that a lecturer standing trial for rape, Dr. Afeez Baruwa, is not an employee of the institution.

This, Bello said had contributed to the inability of the university authorities to punish him for allegedly raping an admission seeker in the school.

Baruwa allegedly raped an 18-year-old female who was seeking admission to the university.

But at a briefing on Monday, Bello said the university had no relationship with Baruwa, hence it could not directly punish him as it did when its personnel were involved in sexual harassment in the past.

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He also noted that the institution had no relationship with the alleged victim.

The VC said the only formal relationship the university had with Baruwa was when he undertook his undergraduate and MSc programmes in Marketing at the institution’s Distance Learning Institute.

Bello, who however, admitted that Baruwa was engaged by the DLI, noted that the term of his contract did not include providing him an office facility.

“He was engaged for project supervising. He was supposed to come to the institute to collect documents to work with and leave. Even if he had to interact with students, such was supposed to be limited to the Institute premises,” he added.

He said that the accused had never taught in the DLI where the alleged rape took place or any other department of the institution.

Bello, who disclosed the findings of a panel established to investigate the issue to journalists, argued that the university was unfortunately linked to the saga.

According to the VC, the accused could have carried out the act in any other place.

Bello explained that the accused had driven the victim from Ipaja, where her parents handed her over to him for assistance, to UNILAG on the fateful day.

To avoid unnecessary litigation, he also noted, the authorities were not in an hurray to punish Baruwa’s friend, Dr. Oluwatunji Dakare, whose office was allegedly used for the act.

Bello also claimed that a Federal Government’s panel and its in-house investigative team absolved the institution of any liability in the death of a 300-level Accounting student, OluchiAnekwe, who was recently electrocuted.

The VC explained that the UNILAG’s medical centre only requested the late student’s identity card to prepare her corpse for transfer to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba.

He said the deceased, who was killed by a fallen 11KVA cable, died before she was taken to the medical centre.

The EKO Electricity Distribution Company, he said, was liable for the death.

Bello also dismissed recent reports on UNILAG’s inability to rid the hostels of bedbugs and mosquitoes, an issue that caused student uprising.

He noted that hotel facilities were fumigated twice a semester, just as the mattresses were changed as due.