Senate Approves 14-Year Jail Term for Sexual Harassment in Schools

The Nigerian Senate has passed a bill prescribing up to 14 years in prison for any educator found guilty of sexually harassing students in tertiary institutions.

The legislation, titled Sexual Harassment of Students (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2025 (HB.1597), was presented for concurrence by the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele of Ekiti Central. He said the law seeks to protect students from sexual misconduct in academic environments and to establish a clear legal framework for enforcing accountability and punishment.

Under the new law, offenders convicted under clauses 4 (1) to (3) face a prison sentence of between five and 14 years without an option of fine, while those convicted under clauses 4 (4) to (6) risk between two and five years imprisonment. The bill also empowers victims to pursue civil action for breach of fiduciary duty, applying the same standard of proof used in civil proceedings.

The law criminalises acts such as demanding sexual favours, making advances, coercing others into harassment, and any form of unwanted physical contact or gestures. It specifies that marriage between the educator and student is the only defence, while consent is not recognised in cases involving educator-student relationships.

Students, relatives, or concerned parties may file harassment complaints to the Police or the Attorney-General, with copies submitted to the institution’s Independent Sexual Harassment Prohibition Committee.

During deliberations, Senator Adams Oshiomhole from Delta North proposed expanding the law’s coverage beyond schools to include workplaces and other sectors. However, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary, clarified that the Senate was only concurring with a bill already passed by the House of Representatives and that existing labour laws already address harassment in workplace settings.

The bill was subsequently adopted and passed for third reading.

The move follows years of documented sexual exploitation in Nigerian universities, including the widely publicised 2019 “sex-for-grades” investigation that exposed systemic abuse in higher institutions. Activists and women’s rights advocates have welcomed the legislation as a crucial step toward protecting students and ending a culture of silence around sexual harassment in academia.