The lecturer, from the Department of English at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State has given his own side of the story.
According to him, the female student Mercy and her boyfriend kidnapped him, stripped him and made him do some humiliating chores because he didn’t not give them a pass mark.
‘All my life, I have always wanted to be a teacher because the teaching profession represented to me an epitome of integrity. I have always believed that through education, we can contribute to the development of our society.
So, consciously, I choose to be a teacher. I have struggled all my life to protect my integrity and this is why I have decided to speak out because silence is tantamount to acceptance. My ordeal started when my PhD supervisor (Dr Abaya) who is currently a sabbatical staff in my Department asked me to help him administer a 40-minute test of ENG 409, a course Mercy was writing.
The class to be used for the test was too small thereby necessitating the division of the class into two. The rule surrounding the conduct of the test was laid down by the examiner, that a student caught cheating would have his or her script destroyed. Mercy sat behind her classmate named Samuel, and when the test was about to round up, Samuel raised up his scripts for Mercy to copy. I warned Samuel to desist but he just smiled and carried on. I therefore collected his paper and wrote on it, “cheated”.
Then I kept the script on the table waiting for other students to finish. As the test ended, Dr Abaya came in and asked me if there was any problem during the test, and I replied yes. I showed him Samuel’s paper and explained what happened.
The paper was then torn. The following day, Mercy kept on calling me persistently that she wanted to see me because Samuel had been disturbing her and she needed me to help them talk to Dr Abaya on behalf of the Samuel. I clearly told her that there was nothing I could do about it. I stayed in my office preparing my handover notes to the next examination officer in my Department as I was just recently appointed as the Faculty Examinations Officer. I was also busy preparing materials for the forth coming first semester examination.
I left my office around 10:00pm on the fateful day for my house in Lapai town. On my way home, I slowed down near the Master Chef Restaurant where the road was sandy and I saw Mercy by the side of the road. Before I could fathom what was happening, four boys opened my car, jumped inside and closed the doors. One of them pressed a gun behind my head and ordered me to keep driving until we got to Mercy’s house.
Then they forced me into the house and ordered me to lick some oranges but I refused. Subsequently they boys forced me to take some water melon! One of the boys slapped me repeatedly. He said that he failed my GST course for three years and kept on slapping me and slapping me with both hands simultaneously and shouting at me, “Am I dull!, Am I dull!?” He kept on beating me, shouting that he was so angry with me. Up till date, I still have problems with my ears as a result of the slapping and beating the boys subjected me to. They threatened to kill me if I did not comply with all their directives.
Under duress, I was forced to write four undertakings to pass some four students in the exams. They beat and kicked me and I sustained injury in my hand which started bleeding. They asked me to sit and write an essay of 450 words the way I used to ask them to write essay in the class. All through these, they were smoking and drinking. Thereafter, I was asked to UnCloth but I refused. They forcefully stripped me and took some shots of me and their leader identified as SKT. They took my handsets, ATM cards and some cash that I had in my pocket. They soaked my shirt in water. They asked me how much I had in the bank and I told them it was not up to a hundred thousand Naira. They kept me hostage throughout the night doing different chores for them, including mopping the floor for Mercy. They humiliated and abused me throughout the night while Mercy video recorded. After several hours as I was going through the ordeal, I started experiencing pains in my chest and started bringing out some mucus. I went to the toilet to spit out the mucus and came back to be engaged in another task until one of them observing my condition said they should allow me to go so that I would not die in their hands. Then they called somebody and gave me the phone to talk to him. As they released me, they gave me a phone number which I must call by 10:00 am when I get home.
After my release, I reported the incident to my Dean. Later that same day they still came to my office to confront me, locked me inside and demanded to know why I was “following” Mercy. They further demanded that I bring the N2million they asked me for. Even when I went out of my office later, I still saw the people that came to my office in strategic places watching my office.
I decided that the world must hear my side of the story which is now being investigated by the law enforcement agents and the university authority. I was kidnapped, assaulted, humiliated, and psychologically traumatized. Yet they still sent out my Unclad picture and videos doing chores on the internet. I have been maligned and defamed and I will not rest until I get justice.
I.G. YUSUF
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