Solomon Tamunotonye, a lecturer at the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic in Port Harcourt, has raised concerns over the withholding of his salaries for a period of 20 months by the institution’s management. This action by the management followed a suspension imposed on Tamunotonye for alleged harassment and exploitation of a 200-level female student named Blessing Audu.
Initially, the polytechnic suspended Tamunotonye for three months over the allegations and set up a committee to investigate the matter. However, the lecturer expressed frustration that the management did not disclose the findings of the committee, and instead, months later, asked him to return to work and submit a written apology without providing him with the committee’s report or making it public.
Tamunotonye, a member of the Department of Public Administration, refused to write an apology letter, maintaining that the allegations against him were false. Consequently, the management stopped his salary payments since then.
He explained, “I have been having a running battle with my polytechnic that borders on false allegation, which the polytechnic put in the social and traditional media sometime in January 7, 2022. They put the false allegation with a caption of sexual harassment against a student with my name in the media. Based on that, they suspended me for three months and set up a committee to investigate the matter.”
Despite resuming work, Tamunotonye declined to write an apology letter because he believed he was innocent of the alleged offense. He insisted that the appropriate punishment for a lecturer found guilty of sexual harassment should be dismissal, not an apology letter.
The lecturer also alleged that on December 16, 2022, he was physically attacked by three polytechnic employees who damaged his property in an attempt to destroy evidence related to his case.
In response to allegations of theft, Tamunotonye stated that the police had concluded their investigation, but a powerful individual within the polytechnic was using connections to prevent the case from being brought to court.
He called on Nigerians, the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and civil society groups to support his cause, as he had resorted to doing menial jobs to survive.
When contacted, the Registrar of the Polytechnic, Chris Woke, mentioned that the matter was in court and declined to provide further details, stating, “Well, the matter is in court. So long as the matter is in court, I can’t say much. The young man (referring to Tamunotonye) should know what is good for him.”