'Sex for Grades' expose: Our undercover operatives were at risk – BBC

The BBC Africa Eye team has revealed to GhanaWeb that probing further to establish a criminal intent by the two lecturers of the University of Ghana implicated in ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary would amount to risking the lives of their undercover operatives.

According to the BBC, the safety of their investigative journalists is a priority and would not be jeopardized.

“Undercover filming requires striking a balance between evidence gathering and the safety of your operatives…continuing to film our interactions with the lecturers further could have risked putting our undercover operatives in harm’s way.”

After the BBC Africa Eye ‘Sex for Grades’ exposé which rocked the country, many victims of sexual harassment began to voice out their experiences.

While some sang songs of praises to the BBC Africa Eye, others were of the view that the documentary lacked concrete evidence to find Prof Gyampo guilty.

However, the BBC in their response to www.ghanaweb.com's follow up questions indicated that the evidence gathered against Prof. Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Kwame Butakor were enough to conclude they breached the University of Ghana’s Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy.

“We believe we captured ample evidence to show that both Dr Butakor and Prof Gyampo have engaged in behaviour in breach of the University of Ghana’s Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy.”

Professor Gyampo and Dr Butakor have been suspended by the university and investigations have begun to determine whether they have breached the school’s code of ethics.

Background

The two lecturers at the University of Ghana, Dr Paul Kwame Butakor and Prof Ransford Gyampo, were implicated in a BBC ‘Sex for Grade’ expose.

The documentary showed the two lecturers in compromising situations with undercover journalists who had posed as students of the University of Ghana.

Dr Butakor, a lecturer at the College of Education was seen in the video allegedly having inappropriate conversations with the "student" by asking to be her "side boy".

Prof Gyampo, also the Head of European Studies at the university, according to the BBC report allegedly proposed marriage to the "student" who was seeking academic favours.