Wednesday, January 15, 2025 - Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), alleged in court on Tuesday, January 14, that pictures extracted from his phone in the ongoing s3xual harassment case were edited. Ndifon made the claim while testifying as the first defence witness in the case before Justice James Omotosho at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He told the court that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had edited the pictures alleged to have been
taken from his phone. While being led in evidence by his lawyer, Joe Agi, SAN,
Ndifon denied sending nud3 photographs or soliciting explicit material.
“In the pictures, I did not see my face nor that of the prosecution star
witness, identified as TKJ,” Ndifon stated. “I did not send any nude
photographs, neither did I solicit for any. This (Oppo phone) is not the phone
I used to chat with her.”
Ndifon also alleged that the ICPC had not verified the pictures with
TKJ’s phone and admitted in court that they did not seek her device for
comparison. He claimed that the images and chats, marked as "Exhibit
H," were not from his phone.
“Looking at it, slide 661 shows that this document has been edited,”
Ndifon said. “I haven’t gone through the whole document, so I don’t know which
other part was edited. I watched the video slide, but I didn’t see my face or
TKJ’s.”
The professor expressed shock at the prosecution's approach, stating
that he was not invited to witness the extraction of evidence. He also
questioned the timing of TKJ’s statements to the ICPC, which were made after he
had already been charged in October 2023.
Ndifon further alleged that TKJ, now a student in the Faculty of Law at
UNICAL, gained admission under questionable circumstances. He claimed that
despite her not being qualified, she was admitted after testifying against him.
According to Ndifon, TKJ had approached him through her uncle, who
claimed she paid someone in the Vice Chancellor’s office ₦100,000 to secure
admission into the Faculty of Law. Ndifon said he refused to assist, as
admission had closed and she scored 102 in her JAMB examination. He advised her
to enrol in a diploma program and aim for admission through direct entry.
Ndifon also refuted allegations of requesting oral s3x or making any
advances towards TKJ, asserting that the alleged incident occurred when he was
no longer Dean of the Faculty of Law. “I’m totally shocked she came to testify
because nothing like that happened,” he stated.
Under cross-examination by ICPC’s counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha,
Ndifon reiterated that he neither sent nor requested explicit photographs. He
maintained that the iPhone he used to chat with TKJ was his primary device, not
the Oppo phone where the images were allegedly found.
The case was adjourned until February 12 and 13 for the continuation of
the trial. The ICPC had re-arraigned Ndifon on January 25, 2024, alongside his
lawyer, Sunny Anyanwu, on charges including sexual harassment and attempting to
pervert the course of justice. The commission accused Ndifon of requesting
pornographic images from a female diploma student, identified as TKJ, through
WhatsApp chats.
Anyanwu was also charged with allegedly threatening a prosecution
witness during the pendency of the case. Both Ndifon and Anyanwu have pleaded
not guilty.
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