Court sends suspended professor and lawyer from UNICAL to prison

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

Justice James Omotosho also ordered one of Mr Ndifon’s lawyers, Sunny Anyanwu, to be remanded at the correctional center pending hearing on his bail application.

Justice Omotosho gave the order after Ndifon was re-indicted along with Anyanwu on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and attempt to pervert the cause of justice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC) is the complainant, Messrs Ndifon and Anyanwu are the first and second defendants in the amended charge marked: FHC /ABJ/CR/511/ 2023.

In the first charge, it is alleged that Mr Ndifon, between May and September 2023, while working for UNICAL as Dean of the Faculty of Law, caused a Miss TKJ (not her real name), a diploma student at the university, to send pornographic and indecent material. and obscene photographs of herself through her mobile phone number: 08037066222 vide whatsapp charts.

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The offense was said to be contrary to and punishable under Section 24 of the Cyber ​​Crimes (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015.

In the third charge, it is alleged that the lawyer, sometime in or about November 2023, in Abuja, during the pendency of the charge against Mr. Ndifon and at the instigation of the professor, called one of the prosecution witnesses on his phone mobile.

Mr Anyanwu is alleged to have threatened her not to accept the invitation of the ICPC regarding the criminal investigation against Mr Ndifon, conduct which he knew was aimed at perverting the cause of justice.

The offense was 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 January 10, ordered the release of Mr Ndifon on temporary bail to allow him to undergo glaucoma surgery.

(YAYA)