The suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law in the University of Calabar, UNICAL, Southern Nigeria, Professor Cyril Ndifon, has filed a no-case submission before the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the amended sexual harassment and gratification suit instituted against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The Professor maintained that the 22-year-old star witness, simply identified as TKJ, was in a love relationship with him going by the series of chats between them.
Under cross-examination by the defence team led by Joe Agi, TKJ had also admitted that several allegations she made in open court — including being forced to perform fellatio on the professor were not mentioned in her original statement to the ICPC, saying her experience was summarised out of shame and fear.
An official of the ICPC, Luci Chima, First Prosecution Witness (PW1), had also told the court that a forensic analysis carried out on the phone of the professor revealed unclad photos of several contacts, including that of the star witness, TKJ.
Agi urged the court to decline jurisdiction on the case because, under cross-examination, Chima (PW1) asserted that they received several oral and written complaints but never mentioned TKJ as one of such complainants and that TKJ was not even listed as a witness in the originating charge but surfaced after the amended charge was filed.
The lawyer wondered why the Registrar of UNICAL, who was listed as a witness in the original charge, was not listed in the amended one.
“This Honourable court must and should keep the ICPC within the scope and their legally demarcated boundaries as clearly provided in the statute that created them. In light of the above, it is submitted that count 4(threatening the witness not to honor ICPC invitation) in the originating charge was not commenced by due process of law thereby robbing this Honourable Court of jurisdiction,” Agi prayed.
The professor’s defence team has also argued that the ICPC did not follow legal procedures in the way they handled the case, calling for his client’s discharge.
Recall that TKJ, the second prosecution witness, had testified that Professor Ndifon forced her to perform fellatio on him in exchange for help with admission into UNICAL.
The trial continues on February 27, when parties are scheduled to submit written addresses.
Dominica Nwabufo
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