Internet service provider, Tizeti has reacted to the allegation of sexual harassment levelled against the company’s CEO’s, Kendall Ananyi, saying it had commissioned an investigation to look into the allegation.
TechNext reported that Tizeti’s CEO was accused of sexual molestation by communications strategist, Kelechi Udoagwu. In a series of tweets, Kelechi alleged that Kendall sexually harassed her during a mentorship programme over at MEST Africa. Kendall was supposed to be her mentor at the time.
“I remember one Naija tech mentor who was supposed to be mentoring me when I was in MEST and this dude (married) pulled out and put his dick in my hands in the bright afternoon, begging me for anything I could do.”
Kelechi Udoagwu’s sexual harassment claim
She would go on to identify Tizeti founder, Mr Ananyi as the tech mentor in question while going on to narrate how several friends she told about it didn’t do much beyond comforting her and expressing their sympathies.
MEST Africa has since condemned the act and promised to stand by Kelechi if she decides to escalate the accusation. Piggyvest COO, Odunayo Eweniyi and Mary Olushoga’s AWP Network have also shown support to Kelechi. But probably the strongest statement was made by the co-founder of Jobberman, Opeyemi Awoyemi who seems to work with Tizeti in a yet-to-be-identified capacity.
“I know Kendall but won’t stand for sexual harassment of any kind. He should defend himself if this isn’t true. Moving from Tizeti till justice is done,” Opeyemi said in a tweet.
While the Jobberman co-founder challenged the Tizeti CEO to defend himself, that happens to be something Kendall Ananyi isn’t in a hurry to do as he has restricted every social media access to him and as at the time of writing this piece, hasn’t made a public comment addressing the allegation.
But his company, Tizeti has done so. In a release, the internet providers condemned sexual harassment, declared its stand against it and promised to investigate the allegation against its founder.
“We have commissioned an investigation into the allegation,” Tizeti said. “As a company, we have zero tolerance for harassment and outright condemn sexual harassment of any kind and empathize with any person who faces incidents of sexual harassment.”
While this is a positive first step into addressing the claim, questions have been raised on how expansive and how incisive that investigation would be.
For one, Kendall Ananyi remains Tizeti’s boss even as the investigations have commenced. Thus, it is practically a matter of him investigating himself.
Then, there was no timeline given for the conclusion of the investigation, thus nobody knows when it would be concluded. If it will be concluded. Also, the scope of the investigation wasn’t mentioned. Thus, would it cover all sides of the story or just the CEO’s?
Furthermore, what would be Mr Ananyi’s punishment if found guilty?
Very few sexual harassment cases in Nigeria get satisfactory conclusions. Fewer still end with the guilty party getting the punishment they deserve. We can only hope Tizeti’s investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against its own CEO ends satisfactorily.
TechNext mailed Tizeti to express these concerns. We are yet to get a response.
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