by;brightwebtv/nana asare barimah

 

Senior lecturer at the Political Science department of the University of Ghana (UG), Prof Ransford Gyampo, has denied the allegations levelled against him in BBC’s ‘sex for grades’ exposé and threatened to sue the media house.

In an interview with Citi TV, he said it was wrong for the BBC to claim that he was demanding sex from someone who is neither his student nor a student of the university.

“I didn’t see anything like that [in the video] and I have not done anything like that…in my initial response to the BBC, I said I would leave the matter to God and their conscience…but…this is a clear case of defamation and I’ve spoken to my lawyers,” Prof. Gyampo said.

But after the release of the full documentary, Prof Gyampo was found contradicting himself in parts of the interview he granted many media houses shortly after a snippet of the documentary was released Monday afternoon.

1. Buying the shoe

The brief video showed Prof Gyampo meeting an investigator who was posing as a student at one of the malls in the city and making what some consider inappropriate remarks.

During the interview with Umaru Sanda, the head of the Centre for European Studies at the university said the lady asked him to buy her shoes after he jokingly promised to buy her one because she said she did not have money to get some.

“…she told me ‘you promised me you’re going to buy me a shoe and so where is it? I told her let’s go to Bata. We went to Bata, I was going to buy her one shoe, she picked two shoes and I paid for it,” he said.

But the documentary showed otherwise as Prof Gyampo is heard telling the lady, “…I told you we are buying two, so let me buy. One for school, one for outing” to which the lady responded “I’m ok with this one. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

2. Informal conversation and violent kiss

Prof Gyampo, also during the interview, insisted that the two had developed a close friendship where they could talk freely and act casually around each other.

“We had had a certain informal conversation… there was something on her phone that I chanced on…so I saw something and I was like ‘have you ever been kissed violently before and she said ‘no no no’ I said ok.”

“She was behaving like she was shy I said ‘look be free and be open because we’re friends, if you don’t take care I’ll kiss you violently so that your shyness will go away’ and then we all laughed about it,” he said.

The documentary however shows that Prof Gyampo did not mention kissing just at one point during their meeting to signify that he was only joking about it but rather twice, which tells viewers he meant what he was saying.

Before getting the shoes, he asked her “Have you ever been kissed violently before?” a question which seemed to have taken the lady by surprise.

He also brings up kissing again after getting the shoes when he tells her “I’ll grab you and kiss you here and by the time I’ll release you, you’ll see all the shyness gone.”

Also, scenes from the documentary do not show the two had an informal relationship as Prof Gyampo claimed.

After getting her the shoes, for instance, Prof Gyampo is heard telling the lady, “stop pushing yourself away, because if you are going to be my wife…stop pushing me aside,” a statement that tells viewers and listeners, she was trying to move away from him.

Another proof there wasn’t such a casual relationship between the two was the phone conversation the two had before meeting up at the mall.

Prof Gyampo is heard complaining “Formal, formal, formal, formal, you want to talk about work, work, nothing else. I don’t believe it.”

3. She’s not a student

Prof Gyampo during the interview insisted the lady in question was not his student, so the BBC does not have a case against him.

“I knew she wasn’t my student…but I didn’t know she was sent to trap me…How can you engage in so-called sex for grade relationship with someone who is not a student.”

But all who have watched the documentary can recall, the lady approached him under the guise of being a student who needed his help in writing a report.

He told her to inform her mum about his intention to marry her after school which shows he was fully aware she was a student.

“Pick up the phone and tell mummy that someone says he wants to marry me after school. He will push you to do national service; he will push you to do masters.”

The University of Ghana is currently investigating Prof Ransford Gyampo, and another lecturer who was also indicted in the documentary, Dr Kwame Butakor.