Sexual assault: Again, UNICAL suspends Dean of Law

THE University of Calabar (UNICAL) has, again, suspended the Dean of its Law
Faculty, Cyril Ndifon, over allegations of sexual assault against him by some female
students.

The suspension was contained in a letter signed by UNICAL’s Registrar, Gabriel Egbe, on Thursday, August 17.

“The Vice-Chancellor has gone through your written representations and is not satisfied with your explanations. She has therefore directed that you should be relieved of your position as Dean, Faculty of Law and placed on suspension while the matter is referred to a panel that will be set up to investigate these allegations.

“The relief of position as Dean, Faculty of Law and suspension from official duties takes effect from August 17, 2023. You are to hand over all University property in your possession including all official responsibilities presently handled by you to the Sub-Dean of the Faculty before vacating office,” the letter reads.

Read also: Sexual harassment: Court grants suspended UNICAL lecturer bail

This would be the second time Ndifon would be suspended by the university authorities following sexual abuse allegation. The first time was in 2015 when he was suspended as a Law lecturer after being accused of raping a student in his office.

Female students of UNICAL’s Faculty of Law staged a protest within the school premises on Monday, August 15, carrying placards that read, “Law students are not Bonanza, Prof.
Ndifon should stop grabbing us. The Faculty of Law is not a brothel,” “Ndifon must go for our sanity,” among other inscriptions.

Videos of the protest went viral on social media, generating several reactions, including those from many ex-students sharing similar experiences.

“I came across this trending news on Instablog9ja, and my heart immediately started beating fast. I remembered how Prof Ndifon frustrated 17-year-old me. After I got admitted into law Department of Unical, my dad handed me to this predator, thinking he was helping me.

“He wasn’t informed!! Prof Cyril Ndifon consistently attempted to molest me. He would send for me and immediately I got inside his office he’d try to grope me,” a Facebook user, Angie Boogie, posted.

Boogie noted that harassment by the lecturer led her into forfeiting her admission at UNICAL and starting her studies afresh in a different field, Political Science, at the University of Abuja.
Ndifon was also accused of selling law journals and not showing up to classes for lectures.

However, he reacted to the allegations describing them as lies and the handiwork of his enemies following his emergence as Dean of Faculty.

“Since I defeated some persons in an election that was keenly contested, to emerge as Dean of the faculty, it hasn’t been easy. I had skipped several booby traps. These allegations are baselessly masterminded by my detractor, who had vowed to ensure that my image is
dragged to the mud just because I won the faculty elections twice.

“If you look at the placards you will discover that the placards have one person’s
handwriting. Again, how come the protesters know that we were holding a meeting with the Vice Chancellor if it is not the handiwork of an insider?” Ndifon asked.

He stated that the President of the Law Student’s Association (LAWSA) Benedict Otu
deceived students into partaking in the protest to tarnish his image.

“The question is where are the victims of sexual harassment. Can someone harass girls without the ladies coming out to raise the alarm that they were sexually harassed? For Christ sake, I don’t teach Year Two or Year One students, so I don’t know why they have chosen to drag my name to the mud. This was why I said earlier that the allegations were lies, cooked from the pit of hell, just to destroy a reputation that I had spent decades building,” Ndifon further said.

While Ndifon has claimed innocence in the face of these allegations, this is not the first time he is being accused or suspended for sexually abusing students.

History of sexual assault

In 2015, Ndifon was accused of raping a 20-year-old student in his office. The incident
occurred after he tore the student’s scripts during a test and invited her into his office to
re-write the test.

A panel set up by the University’s Vice-Chancellor at the time, Ivara Esu suspended Ndifon while investigations were being carried out, and he was briefly detained by the Cross River Police Command.

Some anonymous posters had also named Ndifon in 2013, as a lecturer notorious for
sexually assaulting students in the school’s Faculty of Law.

Ndifon sued the institution in 2016, claiming that the authorities had no power to suspend
him beyond the statutory three months under the University of Calabar Act, 20004.
But the National Industrial Court upheld his suspension and dismissed the reliefs sought by the professor.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) also commenced investigations into the rape allegations, which Ndifon attempted to halt through court proceedings.

However, a Federal High Court in Calabar ruled that the ICPC had the right to investigate the allegations of abuse levelled against the professor.

Despite the accusations of sexual abuse and other predatory acts, Ndifon was
reappointed as Dean of Law Faculty in December, 2022 by the Vice-Chancellor of the University Florence Obi, who has now directed that he proceeds on suspension.