Prof Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Calabar, UNICAL, has stated that the panel formed by school authorities to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against female students lacks the locus and competence to carry out the assignment in its term of assignments.
He contended that attending before the panel would be considered subjudice because the case was already before the court.
In an interview with reporters, he remarked, “I am greatly prejudiced and subjected to excruciating psychological pains, trauma, and anguish as a result of the above-mentioned defendants’ acts.”
The law professor went to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and sued UNICAL’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, for defamation of character.
Ndifon claimed that the ostensible protest by law students, primarily female, was organized by his academic colleagues, who had been working to bring him down.
He claimed that the VC was at the forefront of the effort to depose him as Dean.
Ndifon was upset that people were dragging his image through the mud even though he had done nothing wrong.
Suit No: NICN/CA/ 42/ 2023 is the case before the Industrial Court between Prof. Cyril Ndifon (claimant) and the Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar, and three others as defendants.
The defendants, who included the UNICAL Registrar and Prof. Dorathy Oluwagbemi-Jacob, were ordered to appear in court within eight days of receiving the summons.
In exhibit 9, the professor accused the VC of conspiring with the LAWSAN president (Unical chapter), Mr. Obi Benedict Otu, and others to stage a protest against him in order to bring him down.
Ndifon regretted that the Vice Chancellor’s decree had restricted and hampered his right and freedom of movement on University of Calabar grounds.
“I am gravely prejudiced as a result,” he stated in an interview.
The Public Complaints Commission, the Nigeria Police Gender Unit (D12), the Federation of Women Lawyers, the University of Calabar Alumni (National), the ‘Malabor’ High Court, and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA – National) are on the panel investigating Ndifon.
Prof. Dorothy Oluwagbemi-Jacobs serves as the Panel’s Chairman.
The panel was given a 12-point mandate, which included a rigorous investigation of sexual harassment against the suspended dean, an examination of the extent of result manipulations, mutilations, and aberration in examination conduct in the Faculty of Law beginning in 2021, and investigations into the suspended Dean’s abuse of office, highhandedness, extortion, and violation of the University’s existing laws.
Others include checking the records of candidates mobilized to Law School in the previous two sessions and determining whether those mobilized met the requirements, the allegation of students being forced to pay for matriculation numbers/clearance against Senate approved payments, Direct Entry admission irregularities, mode of course allocations to lecturers and choice of supervisees and Course Reps by the suspended Dean, and compliance with Senate decisions on faculty meet.
The panel is anticipated to conduct a comprehensive, fair, and impartial assessment of the charges and offer suitable recommendations to Management within two weeks, according to the Registrar, Gabriel Egbe.
Mr Effiong Eyo, UNICAL’s Public Relations Officer, stated over the phone that the school has not found Ndifon guilty.
“What we did was investigate the alleged misconduct, but because he felt that court was the only option, we will be there for the hearing,” Eyo explained.