Ebonyi State University (EBSU) Nigeria on Thursday said it has sacked 63 lecturers for various offences including sexual harassment.

Other offences levelled against the lecturers include alleged certificate forgery and extortion.

The public relations officer of the university, Patrick Itumo, confirmed the sack to newsmen.

He noted that among those sacked were adjunct lecturers of the school who had ‘overstayed’ in the university.

According to him, most of the sacked staff were said to have obtained their West African School Certificate Examination certificates before their First School Leaving certificate.

They were also said to have falsified their age certificates and other relevant credentials.

The spokesman said the sack followed an audit report submitted by a committee set up to verify credentials of workers of the institution.

It was learnt that over 300 persons were affected by the sack but the spokesman said only 63 were dismissed. “They are not over 300 as being speculated. As I speak to you, they are 63 in number that have been disengaged,” he said.

“There is this audit report that was brought out from where these people were disengaged, 63 of them. Some of them have age discrepancies in their records. Some people obtained doubtful First School Leaving certificates; some obtained their WAEC before their First School Leaving certificates.

“There are people who should have retired at the age of 65 or 70 years and they are still in service and also some adjunct professors who come from various places whose contracts has been reviewed up to five times,” he added.

The spokesman also urged students who have suffered sexual harassment from lecturers to come forward.

He promised that the school management will protect such students from victimisation.