A Federal High Court in Osun on Monday sentenced a former Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) lecturer, Richard Akindele, to two years in prison for demanding sex for marks from a student, Monica Osagie.

Justice Maureen Onyekenu gave the order after Akindele changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.

The trial judge ordered that the lecturer serve his sentence in Ilesa prison due to the magnitude of the offence he committed “which is prevalent in the country”.

Onyekenu had earlier rejected a suspended sentence and plea bargain which the defendant’s counsel, Mr Francis Omotosho, had pleaded for, noting that suspended sentence and plea bargain should be premised on public interest.

She decried the gravity of the offence the convict committed, adding that someone must be used “as a scapegoat without letting the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions continue like that.

The Defence Counsel, Mr Francis Omotosho, had earlier pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the lecturer was first arraigned before Justice Maureen Onyetenu on Nov. 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student.