Sex for grades: UG lecturers implicated in BBC exposé [Video]

Two lecturers at the University of Ghana, Dr Paul Kwame Butakor and Prof  Ransford Gyampo, have been implicated in the “sex for grades” investigations carried out by the BBC Africa Eye.

Excerpts of the one-hour documentary show the two lecturers in compromising situations with undercover journalists who had posed as students of the University of Ghana.

Dr Butakor, who is a lecturer at the College of Education is seen in the video allegedly having inappropriate with the "student" by asking to be her "side boy".

Prof Gyampo, who is also the Head of European Studies at the university, according to the BBC report allegedly proposed marriage to the "student" who was seeking academic favours.

In excerpts of the video released on BBC Somalia’s Facebook page, Professor Gyampo persuaded the reporter to meet him at the mall where he was caught on camera making “numerous [alleged] inappropriate demands.”

In the report, he also allegedly requested to kiss the reporter.

Meanwhile, Prof Gyampo in a reaction in a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM, has threatened to initiate legal action against the BBC.

He told Citi FM: "You've also seen the video, have you seen anything called sex for grades [in the video]. How can you engage in so called sex for grade relationship with somebody who is not a student in the first place."

"Well this is a clear case of defamation in the first place and initially in my response to the BBC, I told them that I will leave the matter to God and to their conscience, I will not take them on, because I know, and when they were doing it, they made me know, I know that, they have all the resources under the sun to be able to pay for any defamatory claim, any damages I may demand. And I also know that, no amount of monetary compensation will be able to clear the damage that may have been caused, so that was my initial position that I'm not even going to bother them so long as I know that I have not done what they are claiming I have done and their own video evidence does not show that, I will just leave the matter to themselves and also to Ghanaians.

"But my lawyers insist that we must teach them a lesson, so tomorrow [Tuesday, October 8] morning, they [BBC] will see our defamatory suit against them... I think the lady was just hired and paid to come and do what she did, she said she is called Abigail Lamptey and I have every grounds to believe that it may be a pseudonym and we don't know where to find her ever since, she went off her phone and you can't reach her. So we will sue the BBC. The last time I had an encounter [with her] was the last time we were departing from the mall. When she got to the house, I called to find out whether she's gotten to the house and she said she is sorry for not getting in touch with me. She was actually in need of my support or my assistance to help her write whatever she wanted to write, so I took the position that, you need me. 

When he was asked whether he ever had sex with her, Prof Gyampo responded: "I can't do that, I've never done that, you saw the video, I've not done that. I won't ever do that, I'm a gentleman." 

• Read also: 
• Ransford Gyampo: I'll sue BBC over 'Sex for grades' documentary
• 'Sex for grades': I wont be silenced – Prof Ransford Gyampo

Barnaamijka dabogalka BBC-da ee Afrika Eye ayaa muuqaalo qarsoodi ah ka duubay macalimiin jaamacadeed oo faroxumeyn kula kacaya gabdho arday ah. pic.twitter.com/GGoTiEZMYF

— BBC News Somali (@BBCSomali) October 7, 2019

After gathering dozens of  sexual harassment testimonies against lecturers, BBC Africa Eye sent undercover journalists posing as students inside the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana.

According to the report, the female reporters who posed as students were sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers at the institutions – all the while wearing secret cameras.

Reporter Kiki Mordi, who knows first-hand how devastating sexual harassment can be, reveals what happens behind closed doors at some of the region’s most prestigious universities.