Nigerian Senate Moves To Criminalize Lecturers/Students S3xual Relations With 5-year Jail Term

A bill for a law which prescribes five-year jail term 

for lecturers who engage in s3xual relationship with 

students passed its first reading in the Senate on Wednesday.

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 sanitised 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 i

ntimidating, 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.

Premiumtimes reportage.

This is great News!!! *Side eyes at Lecturers shaking 

this bill.*