play videoProf. Ransford Gyampo has been implicated in the sex for grades expose?
Embattled Director for the Center for European Studies at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has hit out at the BBC describing them as overhyped and worst media house.
The Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department has been named among others to have allegedly solicited for sex from students in exchange for grades. An undercover investigative
Read full articlepiece by BBC Africa Eye reporters posing as students of the University of Ghana captured him making sexually suggestive advancements towards one of them.
But shortly after the release of the documentary, Prof. Gyampo who pointed flaws in the report lambasted the news channel for undermining the University of Ghana.
“…You said it’s sex for grades. Don’t we have eyes, can’t we see when people are having sex, and can’t we see when somebody’s grade is being tampered with? And can’t we see if the person is not a student? He quizzed
The person is not my student, she’s not a student from the University of Ghana. I haven’t had sex with her, I haven’t tampered with her grade,” he bellowed
“… we have our own internal mechanisms and systems for dealing with our own problems. So if they believed that something untoward happened to a student they should encourage the student to make a report against me with the university and see how the university will deal with the matter…” he charged
“…sexual harassment is a crime so why haven’t they reported to the police, why haven’t they had the person harassed to go to the authorities to report... they’re not doing that. What they are interested in doing is to undermine the institution.”
“BBC is now the worst media house that I know in the world. They’re not worth their salt. I think they’ve been overly hyped, and it’s important we look into their face and say it. You cannot do such shoddy work and say that it amounts to sex for grades,” he concluded.
He also explained that prior to the release of the footage, he had been in contact with the BBC to tell his side of the story but they seem to have ignored it with the motive to push their own agenda.
The documentary was commissioned in response to allegations of sexual harassment by lecturers that have hovered over tertiary institutions.
After initial interviews, BBC Africa Eye sent undercover journalists posing as students inside the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana. The lead reporter in the exposé, Kiki Mordi, said she was also a victim of sexual harassment when she was in school.
The BBC said its female reporters were “sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers at the institutions” while they were wearing secret cameras.
The bulk of the excerpt released spent time in the University of Lagos and one of its lecturers alleged attempts to propose a student seeking admission into the school.
A lecturer at the University’s College of Education, Dr Paul Kwame Butakor, was also indicted in the investigative piece. He has also denied the claims. It is expected that more lectures will be implicated in the exposé.
