Suspended UNICAL Professor of Law gets docked

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A Senior Lecturer and Professor of Law at the University of Calabar, Calabar, Cyril Ndifon, is billed to appear in court on a day soon to be decided by the court.

Professor Cyril Ndifon is to be arraigned over criminal charges of alleged gross misconducts against some of his students, levelled against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.

According to reports, the ICPC has filed a criminal charge against the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, at the University of Calabar following the commission’s conclusion of an investigation into the allegations to which the accused must respond to before the court.

It was gathered thhat, ICPC is arraigning the Senior Lecturer on a four count charge bordering on sexual harassment, official corruption and abuse of office, contrary to sections 8, 18 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

One of the counts read:

“That you, Professor CYRIL OSIM NDIFON (m) between June-September, 2023 at Calabar, within the jurisdiction of this honourable Court, and while being a public officer charged with responsibility for the certification of students as fit in learning and character as a prerequisite for the award of Bachelor’s degree in law and admission into the Nigeria Law School, used your office and position as the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar to gratify yourself by soliciting for nude photographs and videos from one Ms. ABC (not real name), a year 2 diploma student of the University of Calabar, through WhatsApp chats on your telephone number 0803*** and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under S. 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000″.

Recall that ICPC, in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) had on 4th of October 2023 arrested Professor Ndifon in Calabar, Cross River State after he reportedly shunned several invitations extended to him by the security operatives.

The practice of demanding sexual gratification for grades is an alien being fought in most tertiary institutions in Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, where education is perceived as the basis upon which the success of an individual lies.

While parents and guardians grapple through the hustles and bustles of the country’s dwindling economic situation to fund the children’s educational pursuit, students, many have said do not only have their studies to deal with, especially the female students.

Tribuneonline had in a recent publication, described sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) in Nigerian tertiary institutions which it said cannot be overemphasised as “a pandemic that may gradually be accepted as a norm if not nipped in the bud.”

It drew attention to what it described as the big questions of who will bell the cat and if the victims are bold enough to speak out as well as who they can confide in to share their plights since sexual gender-based violence is often considered as sensitive.

The writer further opined that efforts should be made, especially in secondary and tertiary schools to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book otherwise, other victims would be discouraged from speaking up when they see the fruitlessness of another student’s reports.