Lists of students sent to the Nigerian Law School over the past two years may soon be recalled by the University of Calabar administration for due review.
This comes after serious allegations that Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the university’s former dean of the faculty of law, who was removed last week on sex scandal charges, tainted the lists by favoritism for female students he allegedly had relations with.
When speaking to the media last week about allegations that Ndifon sexually assaulted female students and frequently disregarded due process, passing qualified students aside from those who succumbed to his indecent advances, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Florence Obi, made mention of this.
According to DAILY POST, female law students had staged a public demonstration a few days prior calling for Prof. Ndifon to be fired due to claims that he had repeatedly assaulted them.
Following the scandal, the vice chancellor revealed that the Faculty of Law needed to be completely reorganized due to the numerous allegations against the dean for his alleged highhandedness, sexual assaults, domineering demeanors, and the marginalization of other important faculty academic staff.
“Management resolved with the staff on the need for some basic changes to be effected in the faculty to avoid the continuous overbearing influence and power of any Dean of the Faculty of Law over the students,” she said.
The VC also listed additional actions that needed to be taken, such as the creation of a committee to oversee students’ mobilization to Law School, a review and potential recall of the students’ list sent to Law School, the removal of the two examination officers from their positions, and the creation of a Result Vetting Committee.
Other actions to be taken include the formation of a Students’ Project Committee to assign project supervisors to undergraduates, the formation of an Admission Committee to review Direct Entry admissions, the formation of a committee to update the university’s current Standard Operations Procedure (SOP) to address the unique needs of the Faculty of Law for Senate approval, and the appointment of a new sub-dean.
The selection of a new interim head for the Faculty’s Post-Graduate School Board and the formation of a committee to examine and assign courses for the semester in accordance with the university’s Quality Assurance procedure are also being considered.
The dean and the sub-dean were also instructed by the university administration to give the director of quality assurance copies of all test questions, answer scripts, marking schemes, and attendance lists for the previous two sessions.
Prof. Obi further directed that a panel investigate the alleged extortions allegedly committed by Ndifon and that, if found accountable, Ndifon be ordered to return all unlawful funds obtained from the students under various subheads.