The presidency has expressed commitment to opening a complaints unit to curb the menace of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions.

Sunday Asefon, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Student Engagement, disclosed this during Nigerian students’ presentation of pens to the president for him to assent to the Sexual Harassment Prohibition Bill before him.

Mr Asefon added his pen to the pool of donated pens and said sexual harassment in the education system must stop through collaborations.

“I also want to use this medium to announce to you that soon, my office will be unveiling the Student Complaint Unit,” he said.

“There will be a website. The unit is all about complaints from students. You don’t need to know me, and I don’t need to know you. Once you have an issue of sexual harassment or sex for marks from the lecturers or oppressors, all you need to do is report through the website, which we shall provide, and we will take it up from there.” he added.

He decried that several cases of sexual harassment had been reported but swept under the carpet due to lecturers’ influence.

Mr Asefon assured that the message of the Nigerian students on the sexual harassment bill would be delivered to Mr Tinubu in due course.

“This bill will give judgment to criminalise sexual harassment offenders. And I want to assure you that my office will collaborate to renew the fight against sexual harassment and sex-for-marks in our institutions,” he said.

Earlier, Benita Olaniyan, Erstwhile Students Union president at the University of Abuja, called on the president to immediately look into the bill before him and append his signature to end any form of molestation against students.

“The education system is supposed to be a safe place for learning, but students have been harassed and sexually molested.

“The students across higher institutions of learning in this country, in their goodwill, have donated these pens to the president, and we believe there will be stricter punishment for offenders,” she said.

Presenting the pens to the president, Daniel Ayeni, who spoke on behalf of Nigerian students, said the presentation served as a framework for accenting the bill.

(NAN)