A former lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Professor Richard Akindele, will be spending two years of his life in prison for demanding sex from one of his students, Monica Osagie before she could pass his course.
Akindele who was arraigned before Federal High Court in Osun, had earlier pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges leveled against him, but later changed his plea to ‘guilty’ during the hearing of the case on Monday.
The trial Judge, Justice Maureen Onyekenu passed the sentence after Akindele changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
Onyekenu ordered that the lecturer serve his sentence in Ilesa prison due to the magnitude of the offence he committed which, she said, “is prevalent in the country”.
She had earlier rejected a suspended sentence and plea bargain which the defendant’s counsel, Mr Francis Omotosho, had pleaded for, noting that suspended sentence and plea bargain should be premised on public interest.
She decried the gravity of the offence the convict committed, stressing that someone must be used “as a scapegoat without letting the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions continue like that.
The Defence Counsel, Mr. Francis Omotosho, had earlier pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.
The lecturer was first arraigned before Justice Maureen Onyetenu on Nov. 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student.