Posted by By GABRIEL DIKE and TITI REGOS on
Every day for the thief, one day for the owner, so says a popular adage. Such was the drama that unfolded in Lagos Tuesday (June 7) as Nemesis caught up with a university lecturer while attempting to have the carnal knowledge of a 200-level female student before awarding her marks after exams.
Every day for the thief, one day for the owner, so says a popular adage. Such was the drama that unfolded in Lagos Tuesday (June 7) as Nemesis caught up with a university lecturer while attempting to have the carnal knowledge of a 200-level female student before awarding her marks after exams.
The accused is one Mr. Stanley Adebodun Oriola, 37, an Assistant Lecturer of English Language, Department of English, Faculty of Arts at the Lagos State University (LASU).
He was alleged to have harassed and intimidated the lady (names withheld) for sex, threatening to fail her in the exams if she refused his amorous advances.
When she could no longer cope with the pressure from Oriola, the lady confided in her fiance who help her hatch a plot to teach the randy lecturer the lesson of his life.
Unknown to Oriola, the student had alerted her fiance on the venue of their scheduled sexcapades, a nondescript hotel in Ketu, a Lagos suburb.
Oriola's lecherous day-dream eventually turned an anti-climax when the enraged fiance and a handful of plain-clothes securirty agents barged into the room after the lecturer had removed all his clothes except his underpants.
Camera snapshots were taken before he could put on his clothes.
He would have been lynched but for the intervention of the hotel workers.
Predictably, the news of the scandal rocked LASU Ojo campus Tuesday with students, especially the female population, embarking on wild jubilation. There was a division, however, between the school management who seemed to be happy that the development would help bolster their existing campaign against sexual harassment and the academic staff unhappy that one of their own was being humiliated.
Genesis
In a statement she made to the school authorities (a copy of which was made available to Sunday Sun), the lady gave a graphic account of the story. In the first semester of 100 level last year, Oriola reportedly taught the lady and other students a course called Lagos State Oral Literature (Orature).
They had a continuous assessment test that was trailed by complaints from the students. In response, the lecturer reportedly cancelled the test and scheduled another.
The embattled girl said that when the second test was fixed, she could not make it to the venue because of the problems that social miscreants created around the school gate on that day.
She continued: 'Unfortunately for me, I could not make it to the school to write the test because of the problems that area boys caused. Before I got to the campus, they had finished the test."
That was the beginning of her travails as, according to her, 'he started threatening me when I met him to see if he would be kind enough to give us (who missed the test because of the problem) another test. He said he had the powers to influence my future positively or negatively…Later, he said he loved me, and wanted to make love to me. I refused, and told him that I would not trade my body for marks. Besides, I also reminded him that he was married and I was engaged to a man of my choice. "
The ding-dong continued between them until the year ended without him having his way.
Rape attempt
By the next school year (2005), it was clear to the student that the lecturer was yet to take his eyes off her. Following the release of the results of the final semester exams, she, along with other students, went to check their marks. But Oriola allegedly singled her out. 'See me later", was his terse instruction.
'I entered his office at about 3pm, greeted him and told him that I came to check my mark. He said he had been requesting for my love, that in time to come, I would be the one to beg him. Later, he locked the door and showed me my result, and then pressed me hard on the table to have fun with me. I refused and pushed him off. He detained me there for about two hours begging me to allow him have fun with me. I refused bluntly and even threatened to shout. He eventually threw me out of his office in frustration."
Deadly deal
The girl said when her teacher's harassment became unbearable, she reported the matter to her parents and fiancé who encouraged her to play along with him, while they reported the matter to the university authority.
By Monday, June 6, 2005, she was back in his office, on his invitation. Again, the girl narrated: 'He tried to force me down and have fun with me."
It was at this point that she gave him a vent: 'I told him I couldn't possibly do that kind of thing inside his office. I then requested him to suggest a convenient place where we could meet so that he could have his heart's desire. It was just a game I was playing with him. He gave me N200 to pay my way to a hotel in Ketu, that he would be waiting for me there."
Games up
Meanwhile the office of the Vice Chancellor had reportedly directed the security department to close in on the randy teacher at the hideout.
The source further told Sunday Sun that Oriola, soon on arrival, undressed ready to do what he had been longing for, before the security operatives swooped on him.
Arrest
Another version of what transpired at the hotel has it that the operation was led by a senior security staffer with LASU accompanied by some detectives in plain clothes. At first, Oriola was said to have been hauled from Room 3 of the hotel after he attempted to escape before he was overpowered and handed over to the police for prosecution.
Defence
Humbled, Oriola reportedly put up a spirited defence that 'the part time degree student of English had persistently asked that I should coach her and agreed on a date out with me voluntarily on the 7th June, 2005. The security unit of LASU stumbled on the premises of an hotel at Ketu where I was arrested, beaten and injured."
Escape bid
Sunday Sun learnt that Oriola was nabbed with 'two booklets of marked answer sheets bearing ENG 122 and ENG 125, which the lecturer wanted to change for the girl after having fun with her."
More dramatic, however, was the lecturer's alleged conduct when he was being taken from the hotel to the campus.
A source who claimed to have witnessed the drama described it thus: 'He broke loose and attempted to escape. He climbed and scaled two fences lined with broken bottles. In the process, he was cut and injured himself."
Sunday Sun was told that after what seemed a successful escape bid, the lecturer allegedly took to his heels but was given a hot chase and re-arrested.
He was caught and brought to the campus where the VC, staff and students gathered to watch him."
A worker in the medical department also confirmed that Oriola 'was treated by our medical doctors" before he was handed over to the Ojo, Lagos, police station.