Court Sends Suspended UNICAL Professor, His Lawyer To Kuje Prison

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered the remand of Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), in the Kuje Correctional Centre.

Justice James Omotosho also ordered the remand of one of Ndifon’s lawyers, Mr. Sunny Anyanwu, in the correctional centre pending the hearing of their bail application. Justice Omotosho gave the order after Ndifon and Anyanwu were re-arraigned on an amended four-count bordering on alleged sexual harassment and an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

While the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is the complainant, Ndifon and Anyanwu are the 1st and 2nd defendants in the amended charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/511/2023.

In count one, Ndifon was alleged to have, between May and September 2023, while employed by UNICAL as Dean of the Faculty of Law, caused Miss TKJ (not her real name), a diploma student at the university, to send pornographic, indecent, and obscene photographs of herself to him through his mobile phone number: 08037066222 via WhatsApp chats.

  The offence is said to be contrary to and punishable under Section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition & Prevention) Act 2015. In count three, the lawyer, Anyanwu, was alleged to have, sometime in November 2023 or thereabouts, in Abuja during the pendency of the charge filed against Ndifon, called one of the prosecution witnesses on her mobile phone.

Anyanwu was alleged to have threatened her not to honour the invitation of the ICPC concerning the criminal investigation against Ndifon, conduct he knew was intended to pervert the course of justice.

  The offence is said to be punishable under Section 182 of the Penal Code Cap. 532 Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, 2006. NAN reports that Justice Omotosho had, on Jan. 10, ordered the temporary release of Ndifon on bail to enable him to undergo glaucoma surgery. (NAN)