UG Vice Chancellor didn’t sexually harass me – Andrea Pizziconi clarifies

A businesswoman who had made comments that many interpreted as suggesting that Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana sexually harassed her has said she was misunderstood.

Andrea Pizziconi, the CEO of Africa Integras, has released a statement to say Prof Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu never harassed her.

“Surely, you are aware of the difference of headlines and the article’s substance, the latter of which accurately reflects my previous statement,” Andrea Pizziconi responded to Prof Oduro-Owusu’s reaction.

Prof Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu vehemently fought off the understanding that Andrea Pizziconi’s comments created – that he sexually harassed the businesswoman.

 He told Joy News Thursday that Andrea Pizziconi’s allegations are frivolous.

According to him, Andrea Pizziconi is bitter because he put her contract with the country’s premier university on hold.

“You just have to treat this with the contempt that it deserves…personally, I will describe her as somebody who is bitter and extremely angry,” he said.

Also, speaking on Newsnight on Joy FM, Ms Pizziconi said she only sought to project misogynistic statements the Vice-Chancellor made against her in a previous tweet.

She also accused the media of blowing her earlier comments out of proportion.

Read Andrea’s full response below.

Andrea’s previous tweet and the timing

Andrea Pizziconi had tweeted that the BBC Africa Eye’s ‘Sex for grade’ documentary which implicated two lecturers of the university for sexually harassing students resonates deeply with her.

She wrote that her company Africa Integras led a $64mn infrastructure investment at UG which was defaulted upon by the current VC.

Africa Integras, the Investment arm of The Christie Company, serves as advisor and investor in education infrastructure projects across Africa.

“He confidently declared as much publicly at a UG Council meeting in August 2017 suggesting the contract was invalid as it was signed under duress in a hotel room between his predecessor and myself. Nothing could be further from the truth and in fact of all my dealing with UG and in Ghana, it was this VC who made me most uncomfortable when he repeatedly declined to work with me to save the project but instead said ‘I was far too pretty to worry my little head about the project while declaring turn around everyone I want to give her a proper hug’. So, I know well what pressure such women are under to compromise their dignity at the University of Ghana,” she wrote.

The timing of the tweet got some of her followers to think that she was alleging that she had been sexually harassed.