UNICAL dean facing s3xual harassment lawsuit claims photos extracted from his phone were edited

Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), alleged in court on Tuesday, January 14, that pictures extracted from his phone in the ongoing s3xual harassment case were edited. Ndifon made the claim while testifying as the first defence witness in the case before Justice James Omotosho at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He told the court that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had edited the pictures alleged to have been taken from his phone. While being led in evidence by his lawyer, Joe Agi, SAN, Ndifon denied sending nud3 photographs or soliciting explicit material.

“In the pictures, I did not see my face nor that of the prosecution star witness, identified as TKJ,” Ndifon stated. “I did not send any nude photographs, neither did I solicit for any. This (Oppo phone) is not the phone I used to chat with her.”

Ndifon also alleged that the ICPC had not verified the pictures with TKJ’s phone and admitted in court that they did not seek her device for comparison. He claimed that the images and chats, marked as “Exhibit H,” were not from his phone.

“Looking at it, slide 661 shows that this document has been edited,” Ndifon said. “I haven’t gone through the whole document, so I don’t know which other part was edited. I watched the video slide, but I didn’t see my face or TKJ’s.”

The professor expressed shock at the prosecution’s approach, stating that he was not invited to witness the extraction of evidence. He also questioned the timing of TKJ’s statements to the ICPC, which were made after he had already been charged in October 2023.

Ndifon further alleged that TKJ, now a student in the Faculty of Law at UNICAL, gained admission under questionable circumstances. He claimed that despite her not being qualified, she was admitted after testifying against him.

According to Ndifon, TKJ had approached him through her uncle, who claimed she paid someone in the Vice Chancellor’s office ₦100,000 to secure admission into the Faculty of Law. Ndifon said he refused to assist, as admission had closed and she scored 102 in her JAMB examination. He advised her to enrol in a diploma program and aim for admission through direct entry.

Ndifon also refuted allegations of requesting oral s3x or making any advances towards TKJ, asserting that the alleged incident occurred when he was no longer Dean of the Faculty of Law. “I’m totally shocked she came to testify because nothing like that happened,” he stated.

Under cross-examination by ICPC’s counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, Ndifon reiterated that he neither sent nor requested explicit photographs. He maintained that the iPhone he used to chat with TKJ was his primary device, not the Oppo phone where the images were allegedly found.

The case was adjourned until February 12 and 13 for the continuation of the trial. The ICPC had re-arraigned Ndifon on January 25, 2024, alongside his lawyer, Sunny Anyanwu, on charges including sexual harassment and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The commission accused Ndifon of requesting pornographic images from a female diploma student, identified as TKJ, through WhatsApp chats.

Anyanwu was also charged with allegedly threatening a prosecution witness during the pendency of the case. Both Ndifon and Anyanwu have pleaded not guilty.