Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tizeti, Kendall Ananyi, has stepped down from his role as CEO following sexual harassment allegation.
A statement by the company on Sunday said it asked Mr Ananyi to step down to allow independent investigation into the allegation.
“The Tizeti Network Board 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. Kendall Ananyi has agreed to remain fully compliant until the independent investigation concludes,” the company said.
“We want to affirm that we take allegation of harassment, discrimination or misconduct of any kind, very seriously.”
Tizeti is a tech firm that provides high speed broadband internet to residences and businesses in Nigeria.
It also deploys public Wi-fi Hotspot to locations across Africa.
Ananyi’s exclusion from the day-to-day running of the brand followed sexual harassment allegation leveled against him on June 2 by Kelechi Udoagwu.
The accuser said he sexually harassed her during her tutorship at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST).
“I just laughed sadly cos I remember one Naija #tech mentor who was supposed to be mentoring me when I was in MEST & this dude (married) pulled out and put his d** in my hands in the bright afternoon, begging me for anything I could do,” she wrote on Twitter.
“His name is Kendall Ananyi. Founder of wifi.com.ng or Tizeti.”
Her allegation came in the wake of outrage which greeted the increase in rape cases across the country.
The statement by the company said the current Tizeti CFO, Patricia Aiyedun, and current Tizeti COO, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, will assume the position of interim co-CEOs effective immediately.
“Before joining Tizeti, Patricia was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers with over 13 years of professional accounting and financial management experience.
“Ifeanyi Okonkwo has over 14 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry and is co-founder and current COO of Tizeti. Before co-founding Tizeti, Ifeanyi worked with various telecom companies including Blackberry and Eircom,” it said.
