By Frank Ulom
Barely four days after celebrating his wife’s promotion to the rank of professor, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar, UNICAL, has been remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.
CONVERSEER learned that Ndifon was remanded on Thursday, 25 January 2024, by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice James Omotosho.
According to NAN, Justice Omotosho also ordered one of Ndifon’s lawyers, Sunny Anyanwu Esq., to be remanded in the same Correctional Centre pending the hearing of their bail application.
Omotosho gave the order after Ndifon and Anyanwu were re-arraigned on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
Ndifon and Anyanwu are the 1st and 2nd defendants, while the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, is the complainant, in the amended charge with suit number: FHC/ABJ/CR/511/2023.
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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.
CONVERSEER earlier reported that Omotosho had on the 10th of January 2024, ordered the temporal release of Ndifon on bail to enable him to undergo glaucoma surgery, after he was remanded earlier.
Prof. Ndifon’s wife, Prof. Rita Cyril Ndifon, on Sunday, 20 January 2024, celebrated her elevation to a Professor at the Faculty of Education, UNICAL.
Mrs Ndifon also celebrated her 28th marriage anniversary with Mr Ndifon in a Thanksgiving which took place at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Navy Barracks in Calabar, and officiated by Rev. Fr. Richmond Diala.