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| Nigeria's Senate |
A bill for a law which
prescribes five-year jail term for lecturers who engage in sexual relationship
with students passed its first reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
News
Agency of Nigeria report continues:
The
bill, sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46
other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship
between lecturers and their students.
Briefing
journalists after plenary, Mr. Omo-Agege said that the nation’s institutions of
higher learning must be sanitized to rid them of lecturers who saw female
students as “prize’’.
According
to him, when the bill is passed and signed into law, any lecturer found guilty
will be liable to a jail term of up to five years but not less than two years
with no option of fine.
“When
passed into law, it makes it a criminal offence for any educator in a
university, polytechnic or any other tertiary educational institution to
violate or exploit the student-lecturer fiduciary relationship for sexual
pleasures.
“The
bill imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of providing
tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility and all
forms of sexual harassment in tertiary schools.
“The
bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually
harass students.
“When
passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and
other chief executives of institutions of higher learning will go to jail for
two years if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment
made by students.
“The
bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or guardians to
seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator lecturers before or
after their successful criminal prosecution by the State.
“The
bill also seeks to protect, from sexual harassment, prospective students
seeking admissions into institutions of learning, students of generally low
mental capacity and physically challenged students,’’ he stated.
The
lawmaker said that it was practicable in other climes as “honour codes’’ but
stressed that it should be domesticated in Nigeria in the Penal form.
The
bill reads: “An educator shall be guilty of committing an offence of sexual
harassment against a student if he/she has sexual intercourse with a student.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or demands
for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition to study in an
institution.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or demands
for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition to the giving of
a passing grade.
“
He or she shall be guilty if he solicits sex from or makes sexual advances at a
student when the sexual solicitation or sexual advances result in an
intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for the student.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he directs or induces another person to commit any
act of sexual harassment under this Act, or cooperates in the commission of
sexual harassment by another person.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he grabs, hugs, rubs or strokes or touches or pinches
the breasts or hair or lips or hips or buttocks or any other sensual part of
the body of a student.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he displays, gives or sends by hand or courier or
electronic or any other means naked or sexually explicit pictures or videos or
sex related objects to a student.
“He
or she shall be guilty if he whistles or winks at a student or screams or
exclaims or jokes or makes sexually complimentary or uncomplimentary remarks
about a student’s physique,” he said.
The
bill also has provisions to sanction students who falsely accuse lecturers of
sexual harassment. Such students could face dismissal from the school but no
jail term was prescribed.
According
to the bill, the only exemption is where the student is legally married to the
lecturer before admission in the school as a student.
It
states that the consent of the student shall not serve, in anyway, as a defence
as the bill seeks to completely ban lecturer-student relationships.
The bill also imposes on institutions the responsibility to protect students who initiate a sexual harassment charge.
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