MTN Nigeria staff, Adekunle Adebiyi resigns over sexual harassment allegations by female employees

Chief Sales and Distribution Officer of MTN Nigeria, Adekunle Adebiyi, has resigned from the company following allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation and victimisation by some female employees of the telecommunications firm.

SaharaReporters on Thursday reliably gathered that Adebiyi resigned his appointment after news of the development hit the airwaves and became a major talking point in the media.

The latest development followed an exclusive story by SaharaReporters on Wednesday revealing how some female employees accused Adebiyi of sexual harassment while also knocking Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, of covering up the atrocities committed against workers.

In a series of emails and documents sent to MTN Group’s headquarters in South Africa between April 2021 and February 2022, the female employees, who hid their identities and only described themselves as ‘The Anonymous Whistle Blowers’, accused Adebiyi of being a sexual predator in the habit of using his position within the company to sleep with young female staff members, whom he often threatened with the sack if they failed to give in to his demands.

The aggrieved employees also alleged that Adebiyi had been using his position to plant family members and friends in key units of the telecommunications company even when such persons clearly lacked the requisite educational qualification and skills to occupy such roles.

The whistle-blowers also accused the Chief Sales and Distribution Officer of inflating contracts, receiving kickbacks and inventing false sales figures to deceive the organisation’s leadership and continue to keep his coveted role.

The whistle-blowers further alleged that Adebiyi used proceeds of his corrupt dealings in MTN Nigeria to purchase a house in Manchester, United Kingdom, and also built a multi-million-naira state-of-the-art school for his wife in Lagos.

The employees said that Adebiyi, despite his gross misconduct and acts of corruption and sabotage against MTN Group, had the full backing of Toriola and other top officers in the company.

In another exposé on Thursday by another group of workers which was reported by SaharaReporters, Adebiyi was accused of conniving with General Manager, Northern Regional Operations, Amina Dambatta, and some other senior officers of the organisation to defraud the company of huge sums through different corrupt strategies.

The aggrieved workers under the banner of ‘Anonymous Concerned Staff of Sales and Distribution Division’, alleged that a cabal run by the aforementioned officers operating in different regions of the country had grossly violated the rights of workers by stifling their voices and victimising them for daring to complain about certain anomalies they noticed within the system.

While the telecommunications company is yet to react to the latest round of accusations against principal officers, the development forced Adebiyi to tender his resignation on Thursday afternoon.

The spokesperson for MTN Nigeria, Funsho Aina, did not reply to a text message sent to him over the latest development.