By Bulama Kaka
A Federal High Court in Osun State on Monday sentenced a former Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) lecturer, Prof. Richard Akindele, to two years in prison for demanding sex for marks from a student, Monica Osagie.
Justice Maureen Onyekenu gave the order after Mr Akindele changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
The trial judge ordered that the lecturer serve his sentence in Ilesa prison due to the magnitude of the offence he committed “which is prevalent in the country.”
Mrs Onyekenu had earlier rejected a suspended sentence and plea bargain which the defendant’s counsel, 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, adding that someone must be used “as a scapegoat without letting the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions continue like that.
Mr 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 November 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student.
(NAN)
A Federal High Court in Osun
State on Monday sentenced a former Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) lecturer, Prof.
Richard Akindele, to two years in prison for demanding sex for marks from a
student, Monica Osagie.
Justice Maureen Onyekenu gave
the order after Mr Akindele changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
The trial judge ordered that
the lecturer serve his sentence in Ilesa prison due to the magnitude of the
offence he committed “which is prevalent in the country.”
Mrs Onyekenu had earlier
rejected a suspended sentence and plea bargain which the defendant’s counsel,
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, adding that someone must be used “as a
scapegoat without letting the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary
institutions continue like that.
Mr 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 November 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student.
(NAN)
