An insider at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, (MOUAU) has alleged that the Vice-Chancellor of the University Prof Francis Otunta located in Abia State has impregnated a 300 level undergraduate student.
In a petition written by a member of the University’s Governing Council, Dr Nelson O’Amanze Udenze, Otunta is said to have impregnated a 300 level student of Accounting of the institution, upgrading her to 400 level, graduating her and flying her abroad
In the petition obtained by InfomediaNG, it was revealed that the Vice-Chancellor was also accused of impregnating a third-year female student of accounting in 2017.
More atrocity:
In order to cover up and make her lover graduate a year ahead, Prof. Otunta was said have upgraded the student to final year status without any examination, allegedly graduated her and allegedly quickly sent her abroad to close the trial.
Prof Otunta was also accused of an alleged abuse of office and embezzling money meant for some staff of the university he allegedly suspended.
A member of the University’s Governing Counil, Dr Nelson Udenze who wrote the petition against the Vice Chancellor, told LIB that he is yet to go the press because the Ministry of Education has constituted a panel to look into the allegations.
According to him, he will be speaking to the press after the investigation has been concluded. He also confirmed that he wrote the petition this month, January 2020.
Is it the first sexual allegation against Prof. Francis Otunta?
It isn’t the first sexual allegation against the brilliant professor, on January 22, 2020 article entitled “Disquiet at MOUAU, as Female Lecturer Accuses VC of Sexual Harassment, Sues Crony for Libel” published by ThisDay, a female professor within the institution had accused the Otunta of similar harassment.
Professor Patricia Mbah’s claim that her present ordeal in the hands of Professor Francis Otunta, which made the VC to stop her salary for several months, demote her to associate professor and other manners of maltreatment in the university were because she refused the VC’s request for sex.
She also stated that the matter was reported to the relevant authorities but nothing tangible was heard.
In her letter to some bodies, including the university Governing Council, Ministry of Education, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), among others, Mbah said the vice- chancellor stopped her salary since April 2019 because she refused to yield to his sexual advances and had made good his threats of making her stay in the university hell if she continues to reject his advances by stopping her salaries.
How it started
Prof Mbah, Home Economics guru, stated that it all started shortly after Otunta was made the vice-chancellor, having served as one of the panelists that interviewed and certified him as being qualified.
“Upon assumption of office, Otunta proposed my name as the Deputy Vice- Chancellor and when that could not work out, he approached me and requested that we become lovers, a request I politely turned down and told him that I am a married woman, a grandmother and devoted Christian.
“I had expected a man of that status to respect my decision having politely rejected his amorous advances, but he had gone ahead to intimidate, harass and afflict me with all manners of wickedness and at various times, had tried to force me into sleeping with him.
“On one occasion, Otunta invited me to his office pulled down his trousers and tried to force himself on me right inside the office, I resisted and push him down, opened the door and ran away.
“A similar incident also happened when I came back from the hospital after my treatment and discovered that my salary had been stopped despite obtaining all the necessary approvals from my HOD and other relevant authorities with documentary evidence to be away on medical vacation when I came back, I was told that the VC had ordered that my salary be stopped,” she was quoted as saying.
Otunta is yet to react to the allegations at the time of this report.
We’ll keep you updated.