Court defers hearing of UNICAL professor’s bail

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, declined to hear the bail applications filed by Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, and his co-defendant, Sunny Anyanwu. They are remanded in detention over allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Ndifon, who is a professor.

The trial judge, James Omotosho, held that the bail applications of the duo would be taken after the testimony of the star witness, identified as TKJ. The judge said the decision was taken to protect to protect the witness.

Defence counsel, Joe Agi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had pleaded with the court that the bail applications of his clients be taken shortly after Lucy-Ogechi Chima, an investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), finished testifying as a prosecution witness and was discharged from the witness box.

But responding, the judge, Mr Omotosho, said, “I must take the statement of the victim witness first before considering bail for the defendants so that there won’t be interference.”

The judge subsequently adjourned the matter until Thursday for continuation of trial.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Ndifon was, on 25 January, re-arraigned alongside Mr Anyanwu on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and attempt to perverse the cause of justice.

Mr Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defence, was joined in the amended charge filed by the ICPC on allegation that he called one of the prosecution witnesses on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Mr Ndifon to threatened her.

NAN earlier reported that representatives of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) were in court to observe the proceeding.

Besides, other women groups like Nigerian League of Women Voters, Womanifesto, among others, also sent representatives to the court.

Mr Omotosho earlier stood down the matter to allow the court clear other cases fixed for the day.

Ater the court reconvened, the judge warned journalists against publishing the name or photograph of the star witness who was alleged to have been threatened.

“I want us to limit what we publish generally. Let us go within the ambit of the law to protect the witness,” he said.

He also warned against unguided publication against the defendants “because they are still presume innocent.”

Mr Omotosho then made an order that journalists must not reveal the identity of the witness.

“In order to protect the dignity of the alleged victim, I hereby made an order that the identity of the victims shall not be maintained.

“For the purpose of this trial, the name of the victim shall be called TKJ,” he declared.

ICPC investigators testimony

Meanwhile, while giving her testimony, the ICPC investigator said a forensic analysis done on Mr Ndifon’s phone revealed that there were several nude pictures from many contacts.

Ms Chima, who was led in evidence by the commission’s prosecuting lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, claimed that a diploma student (name withheld based on the order of court to protect the victim) of the university sent pornographic photographs of herself to him through his mobile telephone at different times.

“We saw so many nude photos of so many contacts, including the contact of TKJ.
“TJk was of particular interest to the investigation because TJk’s case is a case we observed that nude pictures were requested by the 1st defendant as currency for admission for the diploma class, transiting to the LLB Class.

“We sought to confront the 1st defendant with our findings and he refused to give his statement.

“We left him and decided to go on a fact-finding mission to Calabar where we interacted with a student with the aid of a lecturer who identified him for the team,” Ms Chima.

She added that the 2nd defendant, a lawyer, called the victim witness to shun the ICPC’s invitation.

Ms Chima said, “The victim witness told us that she received a strange call from a lawyer and friend of the 1st defendant who told her not to honour the invitation of the ICPC. We confronted him and he denied it.

“He also made a statement denying he called the victim witness.

“But a forensic report on the call log and other information from the network provider showed the contrary. He actually called the victim witness.

“Being a suspect in the matter we retrieve his phone from him. He signed a consent form for the retrieval of his phone.

“The forensic unit and response from the service provider revealed that the 2nd defendant’s call to our witness known as TKJ was for 679 seconds.

“It also revealed that TKJ’s number was forwarded by the 1st defendant to the 2nd defendant.“

She told the court that while the phones of the first and second defendants were with the commission, Mr Ndifon approached his service providers for a SIM swap, claiming his phone was missing.

She alleged that Mr Ndifon did that to tamper with the commission’s investigation.

The PW1 also informed the court that while the allegation of sexual harassment had been concluded, that of financial misappropriation was ongoing.

She said, “My lord, we have an investigation ongoing against him on the financial impropriety allegation while we have concluded that on sexual harassment.“

Documents used during the course of her investigation were tendered by the prosecution counsel and they were admitted as evidence by the trial judge.

The PW1 was also cross-examined by the defence counsel before the witness was discharged from the witness box and matter adjourned until Thursday.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the University of Calabar suspended Mr Ndifon over allegations of sexual harassment last August.

It followed a peaceful rally held by female students of the law faculty of the institution against Mr Ndifon, a professor, whom they accused of harassing them.

Background

Mr Ndifon denied the allegations. He told PREMIUM TIMES that the protest was sponsored by lecturers in the faculty who did not like his style of leadership.

The university relieved Mr Ndifon of his position as the dean of law faculty and also suspended him from the school via a letter from the university Registrar, Gabriel Egbe, according to a statement from the school’s public relations department.

The statement said the university Vice-Chancellor, Florence Obi, was dissatisfied with Mr Ndifon’s response to a query on the sexual harassment allegations.

(NAN)