The Nigeria tech community which prides itself as one of the most upright sector was recently thrown into confusion after Kelechi Udoagwu, an Accra-based Nigerian tech entrepreneur/consultant, accused Kendall Ananyi, the founder/CEO of Tizeti of sexual harassment.
This accusation comes in the wake of waves of sexual harassment and rape allegations making the rounds in the news and on social media.
Kelechi had recently tweeted:
Tizeti responds, Kendall Ananyi quiet
After Kelechi’s accusations, Tizeti responded stating that they will investigate their Kendall Ananyi, the CEO. Meanwhile, Ananyi did not comment on the allegation.
Tizeti released a now-deleted statement on Twitter:
“Our attention has been drawn to a series of tweets posted by Kelechi Udoagwu on Twitter between June 2 and 3, 2020, where she alleges that our CEO, Kendall Ananyi, sexually harassed her during an interaction two years ago.
“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.
“We have commissioned an investigation into the allegations. Tizeti is fully committed to high ethical standards, gender equality, and making sure our diverse team feels comfortable and safe at all times,” the company said.
Kendall Ananyi comment on allegation
In his response, Kendall Ananyi denied all sexual harassment allegations made against him by Kelechi.
He said: “Last week, Kelechi Udoagwu (@anti_ratrace) posted a serious allegation against me on Twitter. Due to the sensitive nature of this allegation, I have used the past few days to consult extensively with my family, colleagues and business partners at Tizeti on how best to address these allegations.
“At this point, I would like to start correcting the facts and state that I never had a MEST mentor-mentee relationship with Kelechi. MEST can easily verify this from their records, however, Kelechi and I did meet at a MEST event in Accra during which I addressed MEST cohorts. Kelechi and I never had any mentorship session and I never sexually harassed or raped her.
“As confirmed by Kelechi in her Tweets, she has confirmed that she was “not a victim in any way” and “that nothing happened” hence the need to treat this situation with necessary discretion to uncover the truth behind these allegations.
“I thank everyone that has reached out to me in the past few days and promise to keep you informed as this situation develops and I work to clear myself of these allegations.“
Tizeti Leadership Confusion
Today, Tizeti tweeted a statement that it has “asked Kendall Ananyi to step down from his role as CEO, effective immediately, while an independent investigation into the sexual harassment allegation is conducted.
The statement announced Patricia Aiyedun current Tizeti CFO and Ifeayi Okokwo, current COO will become co-CEOs effective immediately.
In a quite surprising twists, the above statement disappeared or was deleted from the twitter page of Tizeti. 24 hours later another statement stating that Ananyi had voluntarily resigned as CEO of the internet broadband company surfaced.
As said in the earlier statement, Patricia Aiyedun current Tizeti CFO and Ifeayi Okokwo, current COO are now co-CEOs effective immediately.
So, was Kendall Ananyi forced out or did he resign voluntarily? Whatever the case may be, this is perhaps the end of the road for a professional and skilled leader.
