INVESTIGATION: How Nigerian university sacked lecturer over vague, unproven sexual assault allegations

The authorities of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, in 2002 falsely accused a lecturer of sexual harassment just so they could kick him out of the university, PREMIUM TIMES investigation has revealed.

The lecturer, Inih Ebong, then an associate professor in the theatre arts department, was known for his outspokenness against alleged maladministration and corruption in the university.

Akpan Ekpo, a renowned professor of economics, was the vice-chancellor then, while Peter Effiong was the registrar.

How it began

It started when the then registrar of the University of Uyo, Mr Effiong, falsely accused Mr Ebong of abandoning his duty while the lecturer was on an annual leave which the head of his department and Mr Effiong himself had approved. The lecturer tendered in courts the ‘leave certificate’ which the then registrar issued to him.

The then vice-chancellor, Mr Ekpo, based on the registrar’s accusation, directed the bursar to stop Mr Ebong’s salary.

Mr Ekpo then set up a panel, headed by E.D. Okon, a professor, to investigate Mr Ebong. The panel found the lecturer not guilty of the allegation of abandonment of duty and recommended that the university reverse the punishment it had meted out to him.

The university, however, ignored the panel’s recommendation.

It suspended Mr Ebong indefinitely and placed him on half pay on 18 December 2001 after the lecturer took the matter to court.

On 27 March 2002, the university terminated Mr Ebong’s appointment after the lecturer had served 25 years in the Nigerian university system.

Trumped-up sexual harassment story

Apart from the allegation of abandoning his duty, which the university panel found Mr Ebong not guilty of, the University of Uyo authorities, in January 2002, came up with a story that the lecturer sexually harassed a student of the university.

The university set up a panel, still headed by Mr Okon, to investigate Mr Ebong for the alleged sexual harassment.

The university’s intention, as found out by the PREMIUM TIMES investigation, was to corner Mr Ebong with the sexual harassment story and deploy it to force him out of his job, especially since the powers that be felt that the other allegation of abandonment of duty would fall flat.

Without any proof, the university, for almost two decades, continued to hold on to the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong, even in the courtrooms, according to court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

Justice Mahmood Namtari of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Uyo, is one of the judges who adjudicated in the over 20-year-old dispute between the University of Uyo and Mr Ebong.

The judge, Mr Namtari, said, “From the barrage of documents tendered in this case and the evidence by the parties, I cannot see where the case of gross misconduct is made out against the claimant (Ebong).

“The case of sexual harassment remained passive, with no evidence, without documentary evidence or otherwise, to make it active or give it life,” the judge said, on 23 January 2020, while nullifying the university’s termination of Mr Ebong’s appointment.

To date, the university has not mentioned the name of any student or presented specific details of the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong.

Double standard, manipulation from high places

The University of Uyo’s decision to sack Mr Ebong was taken on 27 March 2002 at the 32nd meeting of its Governing Council chaired by the then Pro-Chancellor, Dakum Shown, a professor.

The minutes of the council meeting, exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, expose how the university council jettisoned the report of its own panel and strangely relied on a completely difference report from the then registrar, Mr Effiong, to terminate Mr Ebong’s appointment.

On page 16 of the 42-page document, the council members began deliberation on the Report of the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee, following the appeals from some of the staff members who had earlier been reprimanded or sanctioned by the council for alleged wrongdoings.

According to the minute, the first case mentioned was that of an associate professor, C.S. Udoemena, of the department of horticulture, botany, and microbiology, whom the council had reprimanded for allegedly using a graduate assistant, described as a “very inexperienced person”, as an examination officer.

“The letter of warning issued to Dr Udoemena should still stand,” the council said, in its decision on the case.

Besides, the council ordered another investigation into Mr Udoemena’s case because of “fresh evidence” against the lecturer.

The council also deliberated on two more cases – that of Samuel Edouk, a graduate assistant in the department of horticulture, botany, and microbiology, and Uwemedimo Atakpo, a senior lecturer in the department of theatre arts.

The two lecturers had had their appointment terminated over alleged alteration of students’ scores and grades.

According to the minutes, the council decided to withdraw the termination of Mr Eduok’s appointment pending another investigation because of the “fresh evidence” from him indicating that his head of department, Mr Udoemena, instructed him to alter the students’ scores and grades.

For Mr Atakpo, the council said the panel, headed by Mr Okon, which investigated the lecturer and others, was high-handed, did not give them a fair hearing, and, more so, misled the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee and council through its reports.

Therefore, the council decided to reverse Mr Atakpo’s appointment termination and opted to ” place him under observation” while it ordered the panel to be reconstituted.

“He (Atakpo) should be seriously reprimanded for the last time for negligence and carelessness,” the council said as part of its decision, the minute stated.

At this point, we must advise our readers to note this lecturer, Mr Atakpo, as his name will feature again prominently in the latter part of this report.

Mr Ebong’s case was the fourth in the council’s deliberation.

“Dr Inih Ebong failed to respond to the invitation to appear before the Committee (the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee) on the case of abandonment of duty.

“The Committee noted that the matter constituted the cause of the case pending in the Federal High Court, Calabar, and recommended that Council should suspend further action on the matter until the determination of the case by the Federal High Court, Calabar,” the minute of the council meeting stated.

However, Mr Ebong’s matter resurfaced on page 38 of the minute, where the registrar, Mr Effiong, as the council secretary, presented a report on the allegation of “gross misconduct” against the lecturer before the council.

The council reeled out non-specific allegations against Mr Ebong, including accusing him of causing “a lot of problems” in the department of theatre arts, being “very rude” to the University of Uyo authorities, and “undermining” the authority of investigation panels set up by the university management.

The following paragraphs, lifted from the minutes of the council meeting, capture how the University of Uyo decided to sack Mr Ebong.

“Council considered the report of Professor E. D. Okon’s panel in which Dr Ebong was indicted for walking out on the panel. Prof Okon’s panel was investigating a case of sexual harassment preferred against Dr Ebong. The panel had recommended his dismissal from service in line with public service rules.

“Council expressed dismay at the consistent and flagrant acts of gross misconduct displayed by Dr Ebong and decided that Dr Ebong’s services were no longer required in the University. Council approved the termination of his appointment with immediate effect.”

The minutes did not, however, mention who the victim(s) of the sexual harassment were, when it happened, or how it happened. As Justice Namtari of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Uyo declared in his 23 January 2020 ruling, the university did not present any evidence “to make it (the sexual harassment allegation) active or give it life.”

Meanwhile, it was the same Mr Okon’s panel which the University of Uyo Governing Council had discredited as being high-handed and not giving a fair hearing to lecturers, and in which the council discarded its findings in the case of Mr Atakpo, a lecturer accused of alteration of students’ scores and grades, that the council claimed it relied on its report to terminate Mr Ebong’s appointment.

Before Mr Ebong’s sacking, the council members apparently knew that they were about to make a controversial decision, one that could haunt the university many years later, so they summoned the university’s lawyer, Mike Akpabio, for legal advice.

While addressing the council members, the university’s lawyer, Mr Akpabio, “emphasised the need (for the university) to comply with court legal processes, and also expressed concern over the registrar (Effiong)’s absence in court over the contempt charge (in Ebong’s case),” the minute of the council meeting stated.

The minute stated that the lawyer, however, “affirmed that there were legitimate ways of relieving recalcitrant employees from duties.”

After his appointment was terminated, the University of Uyo published a disclaimer on Mr Ebong in the Punch newspaper on 26 July 2002, apparently to scare away other universities from hiring him.

One of the many contradictions in Mr Ebong’s case is that while the stoppage of his salary and his suspension from duty was tied to the alleged abandonment of duty, the termination of his appointment was tied to the sexual harassment allegation.

The termination of Mr Ebong’s appointment contravened the University of Uyo’s Senior Staff Condition of Service Regulations, enacted in 1998. The National Industrial Court of Nigeria took judicial notice of this in its 23 January 2020 judgment.

According to Clause 2.21 of the Senior Staff Condition of Service Regulations of the university, the Governing Council cannot terminate the appointment of any member of the academic staff “unless there has been an investigation relating to his case by a Joint Committee, nominated by the Council and the Senate of which Joint Committee, at least one third of the members, have been appointed by the Senate.”

The clause, which is meant to guard against manipulation of the university system by powerful council members, also states that the Joint Committee’s report must be considered first by the Senate of the University of Uyo before the council can take an “appropriate decision” on a case.

According to the ruling of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, the composition of the disciplinary committee contravened Clause 2.20 of the Senior Staff Condition of Service Regulations, as the Senate of the University of Uyo nominated no committee member.

The committee report was not submitted to the Senate as the clause prescribes.

The evidence that the University of Uyo desperately wanted Mr Ebong out of the school manifested in the manner the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee acted against the lecturer, which the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Uyo, also took judicial notice of.

According to a court document, the committee held back its letter of invitation to Mr Ebong dated 25 January 2002 and only served it on the lecturer on 28 January 2002 by 8.20 a.m. for a hearing that was scheduled for 10 a.m., leaving him with less than two hours to defend against whatever allegation they had against him.

“The Claimant (Ebong) was not availed with a copy of the allegation against him to prepare for his defence,” the judge, Mr Namtari, said.

Searching for investigation panel report

For 10 months, since January 2023, PREMIUM TIMES searched within and outside the University of Uyo for the report of the investigation into the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong.

Three officials in the university’s registrar’s office, who spoke with this newspaper, said they had never seen the report.

Udoro Udo, the spokesperson for the University of Uyo, did not respond to calls and a text message seeking his comment.

Mr Ebong said he, too, has not seen the report to date.

PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Ebong why he walked out on the investigation panel.

“The panel asked me to bring the result sheet for a particular course in (the) theatre arts (department). When I went there (the panel sitting), they told me to sit down, and that there was a petition against me. I told them no, I don’t operate like that. I said to them if there is a petition against me, give me a copy, so that I will have the chance to react. After reacting, you can take your decision. They refused.

“The panel told me I had no right to ask for a petition that they said was written against me, that I should just sit down and that the girl would narrate her ordeal, and I would narrate my defence. I told them it doesn’t work that way; if she had written, I too must write so that you place the two side-by-side and (then) ask us questions,” Mr Ebong told PREMIUM TIMES.

“The course that they complained that she (the said victim) failed was taught by a female corper (National Youth Service Corps member) called Abiodun, who had submitted the results about a year before the sexual harassment allegation thing,” Mr Ebong added.

The lecturer said the panel’s chairperson, out of anger, threatened that he could recommend that the university sack him.

“So, after all that, I decided not to attend their panel (sitting) because it was not properly constituted, and they didn’t give me a copy of the petition.”

Mr Ebong said when he appeared before the panel, he saw a man, Boniface Esu, and a young woman, a student in his (Ebong’s) department, said to be the victim of the alleged sexual harassment.

Mr Esu, who was Mr Ebong’s former student in the theatre arts department of the University of Calabar (Ebong had previously taught in the school), was a journalist with the Akwa Ibom State-owned Pioneer newspaper before he switched to the law profession.

It is unclear why Mr Esu accompanied the student to the investigation panel. He declined this newspaper’s request for an interview and refused to disclose the student’s name.

Mr Ebong told PREMIUM TIMES that the chairperson of the panel later informed him that the student had withdrawn the allegation of sexual harassment she had made against him.

Puzzle solved

Ironically, it was Mr Ekpo, the former vice-chancellor under whose administration Mr Ebong was sacked, who helped PREMIUM TIMES to solve the puzzle over the sexual harassment allegation against the lecturer.

In an interview with this newspaper on 20 February 2024, Mr Ekpo said, “The case of sexual harassment was not taken to the end because he (Ebong) refused to appear (before the investigation panel).”

The former vice-chancellor said the lecturer was sacked because he walked out on the investigation panel, not necessarily because of the sexual harassment allegation.

PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Ekpo if there was any documentary evidence from the supposed victim(s) to support the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong.

“That one, you should ask the registrar. You know why? The registrar is the secretary to the (governing) council; he keeps all the documentation. I was just the VC. You should ask P.J. Effiong,” he responded.

The former registrar, Mr Effiong, declined this newspaper’s request for comment.

Mr Ekpo’s comment here raised yet another puzzle.

Two Nigerian lawyers said it is unlikely for an investigation panel to discontinue its sitting because an accused person refused to appear before it

“The law requires that the suspect should be given the opportunity to be heard. The law did not say he must be heard,” James Ibor, a lawyer based in Calabar, Cross River State, told our reporter.

“The implication is that the indictment has to be served on him or her, the date of sitting, he has to be notified, everybody who gives evidence against him, he should have the opportunity to respond to everything that has been said against him or her.

“Now, where the person, for any reason, refuses to turn up, the panel would have to continue and conclude,” Mr Ibor said.

Mr Ibor represented the University of Calabar students who, on 14 August 2023, accused their law professor, Cyril Ndifon, of sexual harassment.

The lawyer said that because Mr Ndifon refused to appear before it, the university’s investigation panel used substitute services to communicate with the law professor.

“For every sitting, Ndifon was given notice. When he refused picking the notice, we made application for substituted service. It was sent to his WhatsApp, delivered to his house, the date of the sitting. And then they also announced it on radio, so he had sufficient notice. The panel concluded and made its recommendations to Council,” he said.

The University of Calabar eventually suspended Mr Ndifon indefinitely.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission is currently prosecuting the law professor for alleged sexual harassment, with the victims revealing obscene details of what allegedly transpired between them and the lecturer.

Similarly, Inibehe Effiong, a Lagos-based lawyer, said the University of Uyo cannot make reference to the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong if the investigation panel had discontinued sitting because of the lecturer’s refusal to appear before it.

“If they were convinced that there was a case against him, they should have proceeded with their enquiry and then reached a conclusion. But having not done that, by the doctrine of estoppel, the institution can no longer rely on that allegation, they cannot make reference to that allegation,” he said, adding that the university cannot, therefore, by law punish Mr Ebong for such allegation.

Des Wilson, a retired professor of communication arts from the University of Uyo, told our reporter on 3 February 2024 that Mr Ebong’s victimisation was based on a “bias opinion” by the authorities “propelled” by the then registrar, Mr Effiong.

“P.J. Effiong never liked Inih Ebong,” Mr Wilson said.

Cover-up of sexual harassment

Corrupt practices, abuse of office, official cover-ups, and double standards prevalent at the University of Uyo are exemplified in the story of Mr Atakpo, the senior lecturer in the theatre arts department, whom we asked our readers to note his name in the middle of this report.

An investigation panel set up in September 1997 by Fola Lasisi, a professor and then-vice-chancellor of the University of Uyo, indicted Mr Atakpo of sexual harassment.

Several students, including Felicia Etim Isemin of the theatre arts department, testified before the panel, which was chaired by Ignatius Ukpong, a professor of economics.

According to the panel report, Ms Isemin said when she could not succumb to Mr Atakpo’s alleged demand for sex, the lecturer allegedly asked her for N2,000 in place of sex. And because she could not afford the money, she said the lecturer would often whisper into her ears his alleged demand – for sex or money – else she would not pass her exam.

She said she eventually failed a course taught by Mr Atakpo.

Another victim, Nsisong Obot, recounted to the panel how Mr Atakpo allegedly refused to treat her project thesis file for about six months because she rejected his alleged request for sex.

Following the panel report, which stated that there was abundant evidence to support the sexual harassment allegations against Mr Atakpo, the lecturer was suspended from duty on 7 July 1998 and placed on half pay.

A month later, Mr Atakpo’s suspension was lifted, and the withheld salary was paid to him.

In 2001, the Governing Council of the University of Uyo, during Mr Ekpo’s administration, terminated Mr Atakpo’s appointment over the allegation of alteration of students’ scores and grades.

However, on 27 March 2002, the council reversed itself and restored Mr Atakpo’s employment. It was on that day that the council sacked Mr Ebong.

‘A place where truth will always be punished senselessly’

Because of the injustice and the ill-treatment against Mr Ebong and other lecturers, including the then-local chairperson of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Edet Akpan, Mr Ekpo’s administration at the University of Uyo acquired notoriety as the most repressive administration in the history of the 33-year-old federal institution.

As in Mr Ebong’s case, Mr Akpan, an associate professor of mathematics, was unjustly sacked from the school in 2004 for criticising Mr Ekpo’s leadership style. The lecturer was reinstated around 2018 via an order of a Federal High Court, Uyo, after 14 years.

As previously reported by this newspaper, the travails of the union leader coincided with the period in which the National Universities Commission (NUC) withdrew accreditation for several courses in the University of Uyo, including courses in the social sciences faculty where the then-vice-chancellor, Mr Ekpo, came from.

The federal court took judicial notice of this while delivering judgment in the suit, challenging the termination of Mr Akpan’s appointment.

“Let me further observe here and hold that what the defendants (University of Uyo and others) termed insubordination and misconduct are constructive criticisms of an inept administration that finished last in the accreditation exercise in all the universities in Nigeria,” Justice E.S Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Uyo, said in his judgment in 2013.

While ordering the university to reinstate Mr Akpan, Justice Chukwu noted that the school had become “a place where the truth will always be punished senselessly”.

The judge continued: “If there is any person that his appointment should be terminated, it is the Vice-Chancellor (Ekpo) and his kangaroo panel (that) should be shown their way out.

“If they had honour, they ought to have resigned and not witch-hunt innocent citizens like the plaintiff whose association (ASUU) cried foul or complained of gross incompetence in the university administration.”

The court also ordered the university to pay Mr Akpan his emoluments for all the years he was kicked out of his job and N500,000 to cover the cost of litigation.

Waiting for the court

Mr Ebong has not been as lucky as Mr Akpan – four successive vice-chancellors of the University of Uyo have refused to reinstate Mr Ebong, despite an unbroken string of legal victories.

The university filed three separate applications at the Court of Appeal, Calabar, against Mr Ebong’s victory at the industrial court. The appellate court struck out two of them and has yet to give a hearing date for the third application.

Since all cases from the industrial court end at the Court of Appeal, Mr Ebong is just about completing the circle in his legal struggle against the university.

Mr Wilson, the retired professor of communication arts, said the university authorities were just out to punish the lecturer with their numerous appeals against his court victory.

“They know that they would never win, but just to delay him with the hope that he would die in the process,” Mr Wilson said.

But while the university is spending millions of naira to prevent Mr Ebong from getting the justice he deserves, it has also spent millions of naira in court to defend a law lecturer, Enefiok Essien, over a sexual harassment allegation that was ruled on by the Court of Appeal in a 14 July 2005 judgement.

Mr Essien, instead of being investigated was elevated to the status of a professor of law and later appointed as the vice-chancellor of the University of Uyo. He was also honoured in 2017 with the prestigious title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in Abuja despite the opposition to it by some civil society organisations.

Sick and broke

Mr Ebong, 73, was diagnosed with cardiac failure in October 2020 and was dying before a Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, stepped in to fund his medical treatment, following a PREMIUM TIMES report.

Being out of a job for over two decades, the lecturer can hardly feed himself and his family, let alone take care of his medical treatment.

He is now waiting for the Court of Appeal, Calabar, to fix a hearing date and dispense of the case as he continues to battle hardship and ill-health.

Despite his travail, the ailing lecturer told PREMIUM TIMES that he is proud of his legacy at the University of Uyo.

“I laid a good foundation for learning. People knew that I was too principled for their comfort. If you didn’t attend lectures, forget it even if you were my own child,” he said.

“My daughter was in the department of theatre arts, and I remember dropping her from a production that was being graded for coming three minutes late for the rehearsal. How many people could have done that? Everybody came and begged me, I said no. Right from day one, when she got admission, I told her, I am three persons – one, I am your father. All your personal needs, academic needs, I will solve them. Two, I am your lecturer. So if I give an assignment and I am teaching, make sure you are there. Three, I am your head of department.

“So if you look at that, is it this man who will be the one molesting young girls?” he added.

The Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Effiong, told PREMIUM TIMES that he does not believe Mr Ebong’s travail has “anything to do with sexual harassment”.

“From the antecedent and history of Dr Inih Ebong, he is a man who, at the risk of victimisation, rose up against institutional decay at the time the university was facing a serious moral crisis. So for me, I have chosen to see him as the conscience of the university.

“What is happening to him is pure persecution and victimisation. This shouldn’t be happening in a university.

“One would expect an institution of learning to act differently. I do not understand why the University of Uyo is so insistence on pushing the man to his grave. And as I have said earlier, if he dies his blood would be on the University of Uyo,” said Mr Effiong, who studied law at the University of Uyo.