Ghana varsity suspends lecturers over BBC sex-for-grades documentary

The University of Ghana has suspended two of its lecturers exposed in the BBC sex-for-grades documentary.

Yaw Gyampo, a professor of political science at the University of Ghana, and Paul Butakor, a lecturer at the college of education, were seen soliciting sex from students in a 13-minute video documentary released by the BBC Africa Eye in October.

In a statement issued by the university, the disciplinary committee established to investigate the sexual allegations against the lecturers recommended a six-month suspension without pay for Gyampo and a four-month suspension without pay for Butakor.

The suspensions take effect from January 1.

According to the committee, they were found culpable of conducting themselves in a manner that caused embarrassment to the university.

“Prof. Gyampo and Dr. Butakor are also required to undergo appropriate training on the University of Ghana’s Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy as well as the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff of the University of Ghana,” the statement said.

“They will be required to receive a positive assessment after the training before the resumption of their duties. They are also required to undergo an annual assessment for a period of 5 years.”

Earlier, the committee said the documentary was “misleading and sensational”. The six-member committee had exonerated the lecturers, saying there was no evidence that they breached the university’s policy on sexual harassment.

It said the evidence had a “huge variance” between the title of the documentary and the content of the actual video recording.

It, however, said after examining the available evidence, it found “credible evidence of misconduct” against Gyampo and Butakor contrary to paragraph 6.4 of the code of conduct of senior members of the university.