FUOYE council clears VC Abayomi Fasina of sexual assault allegations

The governing council of Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) has exonerated Abayomi Fasina, the vice chancellor, of the sexual harassment allegations against him.

​In late 2024, Fasina faced allegations of sexual harassment and staff victimisation brought against him by Folashade Adebayo, a female senior lecturer.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) in the FUOYE chapter also accused Fasina of inappropriate conduct towards the lecturer, who is a deputy director at the directorate of works and services.

They claimed that Fasnina had made advances at the senior lecturer, then proceeded to remove her from office after she refused.

These allegations prompted calls for an independent investigation into the university’s financial and administrative operations during Fasina’s tenure.

The university council set up a committee to investigate the sexual harassment allegations.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mufutau Ibrahim, the university registrar and secretary of the council, said the accused VC has been cleared of all allegations.

He said Folasade Adebayo has been directed to write a letter of apology to the council within seven days.

An audio recording purportedly capturing interactions between Adebayo and the accused VC was presented as evidence in the sexual harassment allegations.

Ibrahim said the council agreed that the recording was used as a tool to blackmail Fasina to confirm Adebayo as substantive director of works and services, which he had no authority to do.

“The alleged audio recordings were listened to by all council members with the assistance of a translator, and it was discussed exhaustively,” Ibrahim said.

“Members held that there was no sexual harassment, which equally confirms the earlier investigation by the Nigerian police, where Adebayo made a statement that she was not sexually harassed.

“Council directed that Adebayo be warned for bringing the name of the university to disrepute. She is directed to write a letter of apology to the council within seven days.”

The council expressed worry over the handling of the matter by the management of the university, who gave Adebayo preferential treatment by backdating her promotion to 2015 in 2024.

The council warned management to desist from such acts to avoid irregularities in the promotion of staff of the university in future.

The council directed the management to review the backdated promotion of Adebayo.

It said that the position for a substantive director of physical planning and director of works and services of the unversity would be advertised.