A lecturer with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) Awka, Anambra State, Dr Chukwudi Michael Okoye, has broken his silence over the incident leading to his assault by a female student, Precious Mbakwe, following an altercation over a TikTok video.
LEADERSHIP reports that viral videos online featured show the student biting, slapping and harassing Okoye, who is a lecturer with the Department of Theater and Film Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University, after he asked her to give way for his passage while she was making a TikTok video.
The video shows Mbakwe, a third-year History and International Studies student, performing in front of a phone camera when Okoye walked past in the video, tapping her and saying “Excuse me”.
However, the student reacted, gave him a look of disdain and told someone to stop her video angrily. “Can you imagine, he just hit me,” the student said.
However, Okoye, in a brief interview with reporters on Wednesday, recounted that he had only asked the student to delete the video which featured him while passing when all hell was let loose.
“I was leaving a classroom to my office when I saw the lady along the corridor, she was making a TikTok video and I needed to pass. So I just tapped and said ‘excuse me’ and walked off and when she made that insulting comment I had to come back to first ascertain if she was my student in the department.
“And then I needed her to delete the TikTok video. I actually asked her to delete it right in front of me and when she refused I stretched my hand to confiscate the phone.
“I did that to make her say ‘she was from so so department’. And that was when all hell was let loose and the rest like they say is history.”
The lecturer, who refrained from revealing more details, stated that he would not take laws into his hands, instead he has left everything to the University management.
“So that’s all I can say for now, any other action or whatever, I leave that to the committee to sort out,” Okoye concluded.
Meanwhile, the University management has ordered a “full-scale” investigation into the incident.
LEADERSHIP reports that the university stated via a statement signed by its spokesperson that it was taking the incident seriously, urging all concerned parties and members of the public to remain calm.
“In line with our core values of discipline, self-reliance, and excellence, and in adherence to the principles of fair hearing, equity, and justice, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Joseph I. Ikechebelu, has ordered a full-scale, transparent, and unbiased investigation into the matter,” the statement reads in part.
“Nnamdi Azikiwe University remains an institution of learning that upholds high moral and ethical standards. There is no place for indiscipline, misconduct, or any form of unacceptable behaviour within our community,” it added.
