By Nimake Earland
Two lecturers of the Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, Musa Baba Abubakar of the General Studies Department and Adebusoye Michael Sunday of the Nutrition and Dietetics Department, have been sacked for sexually assaulting two female students of the School.
This was disclosed by the Rector of the institution, Arc Sunusi Waziri Gumau while addressing a press conference, at the end of the Governing Council’s 98th meeting which was held for several hours on Saturday.
He explained that the two lecturers were found guilty of sexually harassing their students adding that the Council studied the reports of the various committees before arriving at the decision to dismiss the randy lecturers.
The Rector denied the allegations that the school management was trying to cover up the matters and the erring lecturers.
Gumau who was flanked by the Chairman of the Governing Council and other Council members said: “I welcome you to witness the final verdict of all that have been making waves in the media concerning the issue of our staff who was reported to have been allegedly involved in rape, Abubakar Musa Baba.
“But what surprises me the most is that it is only his own name that is being mentioned. The other lecturer’s name was silent in the media, I don’t know the reason or the rationale behind it.
“This issue of Musa Baba came upon the 3rd of August, 2021. The extant rule of the Polytechnic is that, if an issue of this magnitude happens, the complainant has to write. And immediately when she wrote, the Registrar, that very evening, was in my house with her HOD.
“I directed that the staff be queried which was the next line of action as per the extant rules of our institution as provided by the federal government and this is what is binding to all the other Polytechnic bylaws.
“When I queried him, he replied but when the reply was not satisfactory, we established a committee to investigate that matter thoroughly to its logical conclusion,” he said.
He further said: “After the committee submitted its report, the next authority that should have looked into the issue is the Sub-Committee of the Council. And the Council normally meets quarterly. This issue happened after the last council and it was the next meeting that would decide on the case. And that is why all these intimidations by the Media and the Human Rights Activists, I remained silent on it.
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“The Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion, and Disciplinary Committee met and invited the suspect. We cross-examined him and made our recommendations to the Council.
“The Council today, has finally, approved the dismissal of Abubakar Musa Baba from the service of the Polytechnic, Bauchi. Also, Adebusoye Michael Sunday is also dismissed from the services of the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi with effect from Saturday on a similar case. That is the decision of the Council on these issues.
“Fortunately, the two ladies (victims), have military backgrounds. In the case of Musa Baba, the student involved, her father is a military man. This second one also, her sister who was financing her, is military personnel. She was the one who gave her the clue on how to go about the case.”
“There was never a time that the management tried to cover up the matter. We had to have the respect of the extant rules, otherwise, if we had treated it the way the media wanted it and we hasten up to take a decision, if he goes to court, he will win the case and go scot-free.” He stated.
