Sexual harassment: UNICAL professor claims edited photos taken from phone
Cyril Ndifon, the suspended dean at the law faculty of the University of Calabar, on Tuesday, alleged that pictures extracted from his phone in the alleged sexual harassment offence were edited.
Mr Ndifon told Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, that the pictures allegedly extracted from his phone by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were edited.
The suspended lecturer stated this while being led in evidence as the first defence witness (DW-1) by his lawyer, Joe Agi.
In the pictures, he said he did not see his face or that of the prosecution star witness, who was identified as TKJ.
“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 (alleged rape victim).
“She has another number which she used to chat with me,” he said.
He said ICPC admitted in court that they did not ask for the girl’s phone to verify the pictures.
When asked about ‘Exhibit H’, which contained pictures and chats allegedly exchanged between him and the alleged rape victim, he said, “All these pictures are not from my phone. Looking at it, slide 661 shows that this document has been edited.”
He added, “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 (name of the girl withheld).
“The ICPC didn’t invite me to where they were doing the extraction, and I haven’t been told who told ICPC about the complaint.”
Mr Ndifon told the court that TKJ, a student of the Faculty of Law in UNICAL, made her statement to ICPC on November 9 and 10, 2023, after he was already charged to court on October 30, 2023.
Despite not being qualified, he alleged that TKJ was admitted as a student after testifying against him. The embattled lecturer said she was listed as number one on the notice for those who wrote supplementary exams for the faculty of law.
Mr Ndifon expressed shock that the prosecution witness came to testify as he could not even assist her, being that he was no longer in the law faculty of law at the time of the allegation.
“The allegation against me occurred when I was no longer in the faculty of law, so she cannot say I had asked for oral sex or any other advances. I’m totally shocked she came to testify because nothing like that happened,” he insisted.
The suspended dean said he neither sent nor requested explicit photographs from anyone. He accepted knowing TKJ through her uncle in the UK, who informed him that she allegedly paid someone in the vice-chancellor’s office N100,000 to help her secure admission into the law faculty, but the person failed to do so.
Mr Ndifon said, “Her uncle then asked me to help recover the money since admission had closed, but I felt insulted and refused to respond, having scored 102 in her JAMB exam.”
ICPC’s counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, cross-examined Mr Ndifon before Justice Omotosho adjourned proceedings until February 12 and 13 for continuation of trial.
ICPC had, on January 25, 2024, re-arraigned Ndifon alongside his lawyer, Sunny Anyanwu, on four counts bordering on alleged sexual harassment and an attempt to perverse the cause of justice.
The commission had alleged that Mr Ndifon, while being the dean of the law faculty, requested a female diploma student, identified as TKJ, to send him her “pornographic, indecent and obscene photographs of herself” through Whatsapp chats.
(NAN)
