THE University of Calabar (UNICAL) has approved the appointment of Rose Ugbe as Acting Dean of the law Faculty.
President of UNICAL Law Students Association (LWASA) Benedict Otu confirmed this to The ICIR on Wednesday, August 23.
“Yes, the appointment was made yesterday,” he said.
The appointment comes after the suspension of former Dean Cyril Ndifon over allegations of sexual harassment and highhandedness, among others.
The institution has also set up a seven-member panel to investigate allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by some female students of the faculty.
The panel, to be headed by a professor of philosophy, Dorothy Oluwagbemi-Jacob, is expected to carry out thorough investigations into at least six issues ranging from sexual harassment to results manipulation by the suspended Dean and make appropriate recommendations to the management.
“Speaking at the inauguration, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Florence Obi, said that the Institution has no vested interest in the case and would pursue justice. She further informed that external bodies having indicated interest to participate in the proceedings of the Panel have been granted observer status.
“External bodies granted observer status to have a representative each on the Panel include; Public Complaints Commission, Nigeria Police Gender Unit (D12), Federation of Women Lawyers, University of Calabar Alumni (National), ‘Malabor’ High Court and the Nigeria Bar Association,” the university disclosed via its official Twitter handle on Tuesday, August 22.
Chairman of the panel Oluwagbemi-Jacob, gave the assurance that decisions reached by the panel would result from thorough and fair investigations and facts.
Ndifon was suspended by the university on August 17 after female Law students staged a protest, alleging that he had subjected them to sexual harassment and assault.
He reacted to the allegations, describing them as lies and the handiwork of his enemies following his emergence as Dean of Faculty.
However, Ndifon had been suspended for similar reasons in 2015 after a final-year student accused him of raping her in his office.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.