By Farooq Kperogi I just read that Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), has filed a...
By Farooq Kperogi
I just read that Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), has filed a lawsuit against SaharaReporters and the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) for publishing audio recordings of him persistently sexually harassing a married senior non-academic staff member of the university identified as Mrs. Folasade Adebayo.
Curiously, the lawsuit isn't denying the authenticity of the disturbing audio records of Fasina’s tediously importunate demands for sexual favors from this married woman.
Instead, Fasina is just distressed that the audio records were published without the courtesy of his professorial (or is it vice-chancellorial) consent.
This, his lawyers said, has injured his well-earned "standing as an academic, public servant, and Christian leader." Nothing says "Christian leader" quite like obstinately demanding sexual favors from someone else's spouse, you know!
Fasina’s lawyers said publishing these unimpeachably factual audio records of his sexual harassment without his consent amounted to "cyberbullying, cyber stalking and blackmail." Ha! Did these lawyers attend a legal academy that specializes in comedy routines?
Note that things got to this stage because Mrs. Adebayo suffered retaliation from Professor Fasina because she froze off his sexual advances. She fought back by filing a complaint against him, mistakenly assuming that reporting sexual harassment would result in accountability.
But the university's governing council predictably exonerated Fasina of all charges in spite of irrefutably overwhelming evidence of clear sexual harassment by Fasina.
In fact, in a bizarre twist, Fasina turned around and accused Mrs. Adebayo of attempting to seduce him!
That must have been what led the woman to share the audio files of Fasina's compromising audio chats with her with the media. (For the record, there is no evidence that SaharaReporters and FIJ got the audio tapes from her. This is just my hunch.)
Now, Fasina is saying because an obviously compromised internal investigation exonerated him, the media should not have touched the issue again, even if there's contrary evidence to impeach the credibility of the outcome of the investigation.
In other words, once a “paddy-paddy” university panel declares someone innocent, reality itself should unquestioningly bow to that ruling, and media organizations must unthinkingly bury any contrary evidence deep in inquisitorial oblivion.
Fortunately, that is not the way the law works. In libel law, truth is always a defense. Defamation can't be said to have occurred if your reputation suffers irreparable injury on the basis of factual, provable, empirically sound allegations.
Let’s see how Fasina’s SLAPP (i.e. Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) against SaharaReporters and FIJ plays out in court.
The professor with his legal team are comedians.
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