A LECTURER at Bayero University Kano, has dismissed allegations of sexually harassing a former student of the institution, describing it as character assassination and a deliberate attempt to tarnish his reputation.
Reacting to an ICIR report that exposed the persistence of sexual harassment at BUK despite a strict policy and featured the account of a former student who said she was harassed in a lecturer’s office,the lecturer, whose identity is withheld, shared a statement and a folder containing screenshots of Whatapp conversations, audio recordings and documents with the ICIR on Monday, September 15.
The report detailed how female students in the famous institution admitted being aware of a strict sexual harassment policy but declained commenting for fear of being rusticated. They revealed that sexual harassment has not abated at the institution despite the existence of a strict policy against such practice.
The lecturer, whom The ICIR had contacted via email on August 13, 2025, for an interview regarding the allegation but received no response, contacted this medium to refute the student’s account after publication. He dismissed the student’s story that highlighted how she missed a test during her second year and had to call the lecturer to request for a make up. He insisted that his encounter with the lady in question began precisely on October 16, 2023 when he received a WhatsApp message from her.
On the allegation where the former student said the lecturer agreed to give her the make up test but ended up harassing her in his office, the lecturer insisted that as at when she contacted him she had dropped out of school already and was never at any time in his office for a test.
“Sometime in 2024 I received an audio conversation telling me she was in Kano, and wanted to see me, a request I obliged and she came into my office to see me. After a heated conversation because I turned down her request, she felt so embittered realising she came all the way to Kano hoping I would accept her for all she had told me earlier . She left my office angry and vowed to do her worst, and how I made her felt so stupid in the presence of her friends whom she already told we were having an affair. That was how my first encounter with her ended,” he said.
The lecturer explained that after engaging in a long WhatApp conversation he had an understanding of her family background, and only wanted to assist her in getting admission to another university, to enable her move on with her life.
“My mistakes are sympathetically accepting to listen to her on the premise that she was a victim of a broken home and what she described as rape by her husband from a so called forced-marriage, accepting to go on long conversations that warranted her to send me nude pictures of herself, but refused to accept her for her intentions,” he explained.
The ICIR submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on August 13, to the office of the director of the Centre for Gender Studies requesting information and documents regarding sexual harassment allegations involving lecturers and students between January 2022 to August 2025, including names, departments of alleged perpetrators and dates.
The Registrar of the Institution, Haruna Aliyu, responded with a letter dated August 20 on September 3, after a reminder email, stating that the FOIA request contained serious allegations which appear litigious.
He claimed that pursuant to Section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act, the records and information on sexual harassment and assault requested were exempted from disclosure under the Act.
However, Section 14 of the Act does not envisage the kind of information requested, which is the record of sexual harassment cases, a criminal offence, contrary to Haruna‘s claim.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.