The Management of Sunyani Technical University (STU), has refuted an alleged sex-for-grades scandal leveled against some lecturers at the university, describing the claim as untrue and baseless.
“Management wishes to state unequivocally that after thorough investigations into the recently alleged sex-for-grades claim by a former SRC President of the University, Mr. Owusu Agyekum, not a speck of evidence or proof could be found to back his allegations,” the university authorities stated.
The University management, therefore, advised Mr Agyekum to retract the “wild allegations” and apologize unreservedly, noting that the allegations had in one way, or another tarnished the hard-won reputation of the university.
A press statement issued and signed by Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, the Vice Chancellor of STU and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, explained that after more than two months of investigations into the matter, neither Mr. Owusu Agyekum nor any other person could support the allegations with any concrete evidence.
Hence Management of the University had concluded that Mr. Owusu Agyekum had no basis for his allegations.
It would be recalled that on February 14, 2024, Management of STU issued a Press Release announcing the establishment of a committee to investigate the alleged sex-for-grades claim by the former SRC President.
Mr Agyekum had on Sunday February 11, 2024, posted a video on his TikTok, a social media handle, alleging multiple “Sex-for-grades” incidents in the University.
The University Management, in line with its zero-tolerance policy on all forms of sexual harassment or misconduct, swiftly constituted a Seven-Member Committee chaired by the Bono Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr Peter Duayah, to investigate the issue and make recommendations for the necessary actions to be taken.
According to the statement, the committee adopted an interactive approach in gathering evidence and met the complainant via Zoom, as he (complainant) could not be physically present due to his busy work schedule in the United Kingdom (UK) Army.
During the maiden meeting with the complainant, he (complainant) gave high assurance of getting pieces of evidence including videos, audios, and alleged victims of the sex-for-grades scandal to support his assertions to the committee, it said.
However, the committee had to draw the curtain on its investigations since no evidence of any kind was provided by Mr Agyekum; be it the supposed videos, audios, or anything from any of his alleged victims to the committee.
Rather, in the Committee’s continuous efforts to obtain the said pieces of evidence from the complainant, Mr Agyekum ceased responding to all phone calls and WhatsApp messages sent to him by the committee’s Chairman.
Some of his alleged victims of the sex-for-grades scandal whose contact numbers were given by him to the Committee, when contacted, were not prepared to give any evidence, in that regard, for consideration by the Committee.
As a public institution, the statement said the university believed in transparency and accountability, saying the full report of the Committee had been published on its website to enable interested persons to access it, while copies had also been submitted to the Minister for Education through the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
It must also be stated that the Committee had not been dissolved even though it has submitted its report, the statement indicated, and added “we still want to give the opportunity to as many people as possible who have concrete evidence about any form of sexual harassment perpetrated against them to make the evidence available to the committee for the necessary action to be taken.”
GNA
DEN/LKA/LAA
25 April 2024
