THE Federal High Court in Abuja has reserved a ruling on the motion to release mobile phones belonging to the suspended Dean of Law at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Cyril Ndifon.
According to a statement by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Wednesday, March 20, Ndifon and his lawyer Sunny Anyanwu, who is a co-defendant, had prayed the court to release their phones to “a purported National Computer Forensic Laboratory.”
The motion was filed on March 8, 2024, by counsel to the defendants, Joe Agi, a senior advocate.
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However, the prosecution opposed the motion, stating that the laboratory was non-existent. The trial was, therefore, adjourned to April 15, 2024, for a ruling on the motion.
Ndifon and Anyanwu are being prosecuted by the ICPC before High Court Justice James Omotosho over allegations of sexual misconduct and an attempt to perverse the cause of justice.
While Ndifon was accused of sexual harassment during a protest by female Law students of UNICAL on August 15, 2023, Anyanwu called and threatened the star witness in the case.
Both men had earlier been remanded in prison and granted bail in February.
Following the protest by the Law students, the university suspended Ndifon, and a panel was set up to investigate the allegations against him.
Although Ndifon denied the allegations and described them as lies, it was the second time he was suspended for similar reasons. The first time was in 2015 when a final-year student accused him of raping her in his office.
On March 7, 2024, the court ruled that evidence presented by the prosecution revealed that the lecturer demanded nude photos of the second prosecution witness.
The presiding judge, James Omotosho, stated that Ndifon needed to explain the intent behind such a request.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.