A university in Nigeria has expressed displeasure after a video, in which it went viral whether female students were being touched to see if they were wearing bra before appearing in an exam.

In the footage, female employees are seen touching the chest of some students at the University of Olabisi Onabanjo in the south-western Ogun state as they are in queue to enter an examination hall.

The university has not yet commented on the video, but a student leader defended the bra policy as part of the dress code of the institution aimed at maintaining “a distraught-free environment”.

However, he admitted that other methods were required to implement the policy condemned by critics, archaic, and compared to sexual harassment.

A senior official of the campaign group Human Rights Network told the BBC that students could sue the university for violating their rights.

Haruna Ayagi said, “Improper touch on another person’s body is a violation and can cause legal action. The university is wrong to adopt this method.”

A student who did not want to name, told the BBC that the university implemented a strict moral code despite not being a religious institution.

He said that his clothes were always checked.

In response to outrage, the president of the university student union, Muiz Olatunji said on X that the university “promoted a dress-cod policy, aims to maintain a respectable and distraught environment, students to wear minor clothes and to conform to the values ​​of the institute”.

He said the policy was not new, and the Sangh “focused on respectable and dignified interaction between students and employees, engaged with the institution to find an alternative approach to address indecent dressing”.

He also published the dress code, including a ban on any fabric “an indecent way after lust after a student capable of creating a uniform or contrast sex”.

The university was established in 1982 as Ogun State University when Olabisi was the Governor of Onabanjo State. His name was changed in 2001.