Suspended Dean of the Facility of Law, University of Calabar, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, on Tuesday told Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, 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 cause of justice.
The commission had alleged that Prof Ndifon, while being the Dean of the Faculty of Law, UNICAL, requested a female diploma student to send him her “pornographic, indecent and obscene photographs of herself” through WhatsApp chats.
Anyanwu, one of the defence lawyers, was joined in the amended charge filed on January 22, 2024, by the ICPC on the allegation that he threatened one of the prosecution witnesses on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon.
They 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. Still, they did not mention the star witness, TKJ, saying he had to know about the case when charged in court.
Ndifon accepted TKJ through her uncle in the UK, who informed him that she had paid someone in the Vice Chancellor‘s office the sum of N100,000 to help her secure admission into the faculty of law at 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 contacted him later and told him she had enrolled for the diploma program. He advised her to study hard to gain admission through direct entry into the law faculty.
Ndifon said he has three phones, and his iPhone is his main line, not the Oppo phone where the photographs and images were found. He added that he used his main line to chat with the star witness.
He said the pictures allegedly extracted from his phone by the ICPC were edited, adding that he did not see his face or the witness in any of the images.
„I did not send any nude photographs, nor did I solicit for any. This (Oppo phone) is not the phone I used to chat with her. She has another number 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. Slide 661 shows that this document has been edited. I haven‘t reviewed the whole document, so I don‘t know which other part was edited.“
„I watched the video slide but didn‘t see my face or TKJ‘s. The ICPC didn‘t invite me to where they were doing the extraction, and he stated that I haven‘t been told who told the ICPC about the complaint,“ he stated.
The professor told the court that TKJ, who is now a student of the faculty of law at 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. He added 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 could not even assist her because 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 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 at the University also teach at the diploma institute.
He agreed to meet Dr Owoche, a lecturer at the Law faculty, but said he was not aware that 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 at 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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