The suspended Dean of the Facility of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof. Cyril Ndifon, on Tuesday, told Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja that he did not send or request for explicit photographs from anyone in the sexual harassment case brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Ndifon, alongside his lawyer, Samuel Anyanwu, is standing trial on four counts of alleged sexual harassment, cybercrime and attempt to perverse the course of justice.
The anti-graft commission alleged that Prof. Ndifon, while being the Dean of the Faculty of Law at UNICAL, requested a female diploma student to send him her “pornographic, indecent and obscene photographs of herself” through WhatsApp chats.
Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defence, was joined in the amended charge filed on January 22, 2024, by the ICPC on the allegation that he called one of the prosecution witnesses on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon to threaten her.
Both pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them.
Led in evidence by his counsel, Joe Agi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ndifon said he was asked about the old rape case by the officers of the ICPC, but they did not make mention of the star witness, identified as TKJ, saying he got to know about the case when he was charged to court.
Ndifon accepted knowing TKJ through her uncle in the UK, who informed him that she had paid someone in the Vice Chancellor’s office the sun of N100,000 to help her secure admission into the faculty of law in the University, but the person failed.
According to him, her uncle then asked him to help recover the money since admission had closed but he felt insulted and refused to respond, revealing that she scored 102 in Jamb.
The Professor told the court that TKJ reached out to him later and told him she has enrolled for the diploma program and he advised her to study hard in order to gain admission through direct entry into the faculty of law.
Ndifon said he has three phones and the iPhone he uses is his main line, not the Oppo phone where the photographs and images were found, adding what he used to chat with the star witness, using his main line.
He said that the pictures alleged to have been extracted from his phone by the ICPC were edited adding that he did not see his face nor that of the witness in any of the pictures.
“I did not send any nude photographs neither did I solicit for any. This (Oppo phone) is not the phone I used to chat with her. She has another number which she used to chat with me,” he said.
“ICPC did not ask for her phone to check, they said it themselves,” he added.
When asked about Exhibit H which contains pictures and chats allegedly exchanged between himself and TKJ, he said, “all these pictures are not from my phone, looking at it, slide 661 shows that this document has been edited, I haven’t gone through the whole document so I don’t know which other part was edited.”
“I watched the video slide, but I didn’t see my face or TKJ’s. The ICPC didn’t invite me to where they were doing the extraction and I haven’t been told about who told ICPC about the complain,” he stated.
The professor told he court that TKJ who is now a student of the faculty of law, UNICAL, made her statement to ICPC on November 9 and 10, 2023 after he was charged to court on October 30, 2023.
He alleged that she was admitted as a student after testifying against him, despite not being qualified, adding that she was listed as number one, on a notice for those who write supplementary exams on law.
Ndifon expressed shock that the witness came to testify as he was not even in the position to assist her being that he was no longer in the faculty of law at the time of the allegation.
He said, “The allegation against me occurred when I was no longer in the faculty of law, so she cannot say I had asked for oral sex or any other advances.
“I’m totally shocked she came to testify, because nothing like that happened,” he added.
During cross-examination by ICPC’s counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, admitted that lecturers at the Faculty of Law, in the University, also teach at the diploma institute.
He agreed to knowing one Dr. Owoche who is also a lecturer at the Law faculty, but said he is not aware if he also teaches at the institute.
He was reminded of a case in 2015 with a 20-year-old 400 level student of the faculty who accused him of rape and admitted she was caught in exam malpractice in her 100 level, but denied being the one who caught her cheating during the exam.
Ndifon admitted that the matter escalated after the school wrote to the Nigerian Law School Bwari, mentioning the said malpractice.
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