The Foursquare Gospel Church has suspended Dr Boniface Igbeneghu allegedly involved in the sex-for-grades scandal from all ministerial assignments.
He is a pastor in a local branch of the church.
The University of Lagos (UNILAG) where he is a lecturer has also suspended him, following the documentary by BBC exposing sexual harassment of students by lecturers.
Igbeneghu, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, UNILAG, and former sub-dean, was caught on camera trying to force himself on a BBC undercover journalist who posed as a 17-year-old admission seeker.
UNILAG vice-chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, on Monday afternoon said the lecturer had been suspended indefinitely.
“A panel will be set up to investigate the issue,” he said.
BBC Africa Eye which carried out an investigation on sexual harassment by male lecturers against female students had said that UNILAG authorities dissociated itself from the lecturer’s actions, stating that it has zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment.
On its part, the Foursquare Gospel Church in a statement on Monday by the National Secretary of the church, Rev Ikechukwu Ugbaja, promised to investigate the allegation and take appropriate sanctions while also announcing his suspension.
The statement reads: “The attention of the leadership of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria has been drawn to a video clip trending on social media platforms titled, ‘Sex for grades: Undercover in West Africa Universities – BBC News’ wherein a lecturer at the University of Lagos named Boniface Igbeneghu, also described as a pastor in Foursquare Gospel Church, was allegedly involved in sexual misconduct with some female students of the university.
“The general public is hereby informed that as holiness and Bible-believing church, we do not condone such heinous and unscriptural acts among our ministers.
“We totally dissociate ourselves from the purported conduct of Dr Igbeneghu and promise to take appropriate measures as soon as the ongoing investigation is concluded.
“Meanwhile, the pastor in question has been asked to step down from all ministerial assignments.”