Folasade Adebayo, the deputy director at the Directorate of Services at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), the woman sexually harassed and intimidated by Abayomi Fasina, while he was FUOYE’s vice chancellor, has been under pressure to apologise.
Months after FIJ exposed the compromising conduct of the 64-year-old university administrator, the institution’s Governing Council presided over by Victor Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a former senator, has been demanding an apology from the victim.
FIJ’s report forced the council to set up a panel to investigate the matter. When its report was ready, the panel absolved Fasina of any sexual misconduct despite the weight of the documentary and audio evidence establishing Fasina’s misconduct.
Instead, it reduced Fasina’s abusive behaviour to a “friendly relationship…demonstrated through exchange of gifts”.
READ MORE: FUOYE Governing Council Insists Staff Sexually Harassed by Ex-VC Must Apologise
FASINA HAS THE REPORT BUT ADEBAYO DOES NOT
Since the report was announced on April 9, the council has refused to release a copy of the report to Adebayo, who was the complainant, despite her formal request on April 14.
However, the accused got a copy and it only became available because Fasina had to attach it to a defamation suit he later instituted.
“Engr. Folasade Adebayo should write a letter of apology to the University Governing Council, for putting the name of the University into disrepute,” the panel report, exclusively obtained by FIJ, recommended.
Omowumi Ogunrotimi, an attorney and the executive director of Gender Mobile Initiative, a non-profit advocating total reformation of Nigeria’s higher education system, said FUOYE’s governing council sought to retraumatise the victim and protect the perpetrator.
“I find the trajectory of this case to be deeply concerning, both in substance and in process,” Ogunrotimi told FIJ on Sunday.
“It is legally indefensible that the investigative committee’s report was never made available to the complainant despite her express request. Under the doctrine of fair hearing, which is foundational to natural justice, a party to a dispute is entitled to be informed of the reasons behind decisions that affect their rights or reputation.”
Ogunrotimi, whose organisation has joined hands with others at the vanguard of demanding accountability in the matter, asserted that the council’s action “violates rights and also casts serious doubt on the credibility, transparency, and independence of the investigative process”.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: How FUOYE VC Abayomi Fasina Pressed Married Colleague for Sexual Relationship Against Her Will (I)
COUNCIL RENEWS DIRECTIVE FOR APOLOGY
The panel also recommended, and the council directed, that Adebayo must “write a letter of apology to the University Governing Council, for putting the name of the University into disrepute”.
The report of the council’s July 3 meeting in which it gave the victim 14 days to apologise.
The demand, according to Ogunrotimi, amounted to “secondary victimisation”.
“The directive issued by the university council mandating the victim to apologise for dragging the name of the institution in the mud amounts to institutional gaslighting and secondary victimisation. This kind of directive is prejudicially punitive, and it reinforces a dangerous precedent,” she said.
“FUOYE’s response to this case typifies what scholars refer to as ‘institutional betrayal’ when institutions that are supposed to protect individuals instead shield perpetrators and preserve reputational capital at all costs. This betrayal is particularly acute in environments like tertiary institutions, where there is isolation of power.
“The university’s refusal to publish the report or engage transparently with its community underscores what we at Gender Mobile define as structural opacity, a critical barrier to justice in sexual harassment cases. The opacity of proceedings, lack of survivor-centred policies, and absence of accountability to broader stakeholders (students, staff, and the public) erode trust in institutional mechanisms and deepen the culture of impunity.”
On April 14, Adebayo formally rejected the outcome of the investigation. In the same letter, she demanded a copy of the report and gave the council a pre-action notice signalling her intention to start a court case against the council.
Fasina reportedly filed a defamation suit against Adebayo in May. While the case was still pending, the council held its 36th statutory meeting on July 3 where it repeated the apology directive.
The council wrote in paragraph 27 of the meeting’s highlights: “Noted the letter from Engr. Folasade Adebayo in which she rejected the decision of the council on her case. Council, therefore, upheld its earlier decisions and directed her to write a letter of apology within fourteen days (14), effective from Friday, 4th July, 2025.”
A source close to the victimised staff member said that Adebayo would not tender any apology “as there is no basis for it. They can continue to act with impunity, but they will not receive any apology from her. We await what the consequences will be”.
Fasina’s lawsuit was a manifestation of how institutions and their leaders weaponised the legal system to silence survivors, which reflects a broader pattern across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, according to Ogunrotimi.
“A defamation suit, in this context, serves to deter whistleblowing and intimidate others from speaking out,” she said.
READ MORE: FUOYE Governing Council Orders Staff Sexually Harassed by VC Fasina to Apologise
‘WE DON’T KNOW HOW FASINA GOT THE REPORT’
Olasupo Sanni, a media consultant to the governing council, had earlier spoken to FIJ after a July 16 report. He said he would get back to FIJ about why the report was not released to Adebayo.
Speaking to FIJ on Monday, Sanni said that the council did not know how Fasina got the document.
“The council did not provide a copy to the vice chancellor. They did not know how he got it because the report remains a property of the council,” Sanni told FIJ on Monday.
On the apology directive, he said, “The apology is to the council and not to the VC. They are saying that she did not involve them before taking her action and for that administrative oversight, she has to apologise.”
Aside from his defamation lawsuit, Fasina has been doing everything to thwart an independent investigation of his indecent conduct by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). He got an injunction in April to prevent the federal agency from probing him.
The post Victor Ndoma-Egba-Led FUOYE Governing Council ‘Retraumatises’ Woman Sexually Harassed by Ex-VC Fasina appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.