It Was a set up episode 11
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IT WAS A SET UP (EPISODE 11)
Linda paused and breathed in heavily with her eyes fixed on Dr Mike.
“I want the Senate and the entire university community to know that this wh0le thing is a set up. We do not have any business with his phone. And I want you all to know that this wh0le drama is because of his lustful desires. Dr Mike thinks he can have any lady he wants. He has been s€×ually harassing me ever since I came to this school. He thought Ezekiel here is my boyfriend, so he got pissed off with him. He thinks that Ezekiel has been enjoying what he feels should be he’s. This wh0le thing is about me. Dr Mike wants to have me on his bed.”
Linda sat and the Vice Chancellor signaled to narrate my version.
I stood up and narrated what happened on the said day.
After hearing my own version, a Professor who was probably in his middle seventies spoke.
“I remain Professor Chukwuemeka Nnamdi, a Professor of Meta Physics. I remain the longest serving Professor alive in the country. I became a Professor at the age of 29. I have been a Professor for 46 years now and I am not going home any time soon. I have neither seen nor heard of a lecturer accusing his student of stealing his personal possessions and the case presided over by the Senate. This is ridiculously outrageous. I do not support evil. Dr Mike, I hope you are sure of this!”
Dr Mike nodded.
“And you Linda Olukayode”, Professor Nnamdi continued, “Our people say that when an insect gathers firewood, it is on its head it must carry. I hope you know the consequences of what you have just said.”
“I am fully ready to take responsibilities of my words”, Linda responded.
“Very well then. I think that will be all for now,” the Professor added.
Another Professor was given the floor.
He began to speak. “My name is Professor Iniobong Uwakmfon Akpan, a Professor of Mathematics from Harvard University. Miss Linda, you have accused Dr Micheal, your lecturer, of s€×ually harassing you for months, and because you refused to consent to his immoral desires, he set you and your friend, his perceived rival, up. Can you prove beyond every iota of doubt that you are telling the truth?”
“Yes Professor, I can do that.”
The Professor nodded and gestured with his hand for Linda to continue.
“Dr Mike here is a chronic s€× offender. He has been behaving indecently toward me for quite a long time now.”
“And what do you mean by ‘behaving indecently toward you’?” asked the Vice Chancellor.
“On many occasions, he has touched my br-ast without my consent. He has touched my butt without my consent. I believe none of you here will be happy if your female child you entrusted in the hands of a lecturer, keeps reporting to you that the lecturer has been attempting to take undue advantage of her.”
“Ehhhmmm! Miss Linda Olukayode, you have not proven to us that Dr Mike did all that you have alleged him to have done. We need proves. Concrete proves. Not just a mere talking. Dr Mike has accused you of stealing his phone, and he has proven it. He said he has two witnesses to prove his point. Show us something to prove that Dr Mike has been touching you without your consent, or at least a witness”, said Professor Nnamdi.
“With due respect Professor Nnamdi, are you suggesting that this young lady, Miss Linda, is making this up?” asked a female lecturer.
“I am not suggesting that, madam. All I want are proves, or at least one. Let her show it. Or did she report those advances to any body here in the school?”
“I have no prove Sir. Dr Mike has been careful to carry out his heinous act when he knows that no one will see him. Moreover, I do not always have the time to record the action as it is always spontaneous.”
“Then, as far as I am concerned, it never happened. As a scientist, I believe what I can see, touch or feel. I am done”, Professor Nnamdi concluded.
“Do you have any more to say, Miss Linda Olukayode?” asked the Vice Chancellor.
Linda stood up again and was about to continue.
“You can sit down. Sit down please. Go on”, said the Vice Chancellor.
With that Linda sat down and Barrister Adewale whispered to her.
“I may not have the concrete proves of his s€×ual harassment on me, but I have that of others, which I believe can help me prove my points, if the Senate will allow me present them.”
“You have the floor”, said the Vice Chancellor.
“Thank you Professor. Thank you all. Dr Mike mentioned theft, examination malpractice and cultism as some of the vices that attract outright expulsion from this university. But he refused to tell the Senate that those are the main baits he uses to get female students on his bed.”
Everyone watched her with awe as she opened a brown envelope and brought out a photograph.
She continued: “This picture shows two female students who wrote their examination in hotel room at the instance of Dr Mike. The third person in this picture is Dr Mike sitting on the bed. After the examination, they had s€×. Yes, three of them. Unfortunately, few years after graduation, one of them died. But one of them is still alive today and is willing to testify.”
She handed over the photo to a young man who passed it over to the Vice Chancellor.
“This other picture is that of the young man who was murdered by cultists paid by Dr Mike, because the young man threatened to expose what happened in that hotel that evening between those two ladies and Dr Mike. In other to cover up his unholy act, Dr Mike paid cultists to kill this boy. The news had it then that this innocent young man was a cultist and his death was attributed to cult clash. This incident happened five years before you became the Vice Chancellor of this institution.”
“This is outright fallacy”, protested Dr Mike.
“Be calm Dr Mike. I plead you let the Senate decide that”, said the Vice Chancellor. He then turned to Linda and added: “Miss Linda, please go ahead”.
“Thank you Sir. One of the cultists that were hired to kill this young man was forced into cultism by this same Dr Mike. He wanted boys who would work for him when he wanted to contest election as a Local Government Chairman in his Local Government, so he tricked students into joining cultism with the assurance that they would pass all their courses. That was how he got the boy initiated into cultism. With me here is a hærd drive containing a video recording of the boy’s confession.”
She handed over the picture and the hærd drive to the young man.
Dr Mike was seen biting his l-ips.
“There is a popular story here in this school”, continued Linda, “about a young lady who was practically raped by Dr Mike right in,side his office at gun point. The girl later raised an alarm. She was to appear before the Senate like this, but she died from a ghastly motor accident on her way to the Senate. Well, it might interest you to know that there was no accident. It was a complete murder executed by Dr Mike. That case was closed just like that. However, this is a recording of Dr Mike’s confession of successfully closing the case.”
She handed over the SD card containing the said recording.
As to how she got all those information, I did not know. But I remembered when that envelope was given to her. I thought there were doc-ments of landed properties in,side the envelope.
“Dr Mike accused me of stealing his android phone. There is no such phone I will ever desire that my parents cannot buy for me. I have two iphones. I do not use android. He termed me a thief, when in reality, he is the thief. Now how will you defend this? This is the transcript of the school Dr Mike registered for his SSCE in 1970 here in Rivers State. He is number 37 in this list. However, he did not write the examination, because his mother was seriously sick. But how come he now possesses an excellent graded SSCE result alleged to have been written the same year, but from another school in the then South Eastern State, which is the present Cross River State? Who is the thief?”
“This is a political blackmailing”, protested Dr Mike. “I know where this is coming from. This is coming from Madam Ebani. This is her handwork. She is framing me up because I refused to do her bidding at the just concluded Senatorial election. This is a set up.”
The house went into a rowdy session.
After restoring calmness in the house, the Vice Chancellor spoke.
© Ezekiel Umoren