The suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar(UNICAL) Professor Cyril Ndifon, has asked the Appeal Court to discharge him and Barrister Sunny Anyanwu from the sexual harassment and cybercrime charges filed against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Ndifon’s lawyer, Joe Agi SAN is appealing the ruling of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja who overruled his no-case submission against the ICPC’s allegation that he solicited indecent photographs from a diploma student seeking admission, contrary to the cybercrime act.
What transpired at the Federal High Court
ICPC counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, had urged the court to hold that the suspended dean committed a crime by causing another person to send indecent messages to his phone.
Akponimisingha had stated in his written reply to the defendant’s no-case submission,
“The Defendants in this charge were arraigned on four (4) counts amended charge on the 25th day of January 2024. The defendants were alleged to have committed the offences of soliciting pornographic, indecent, and obscene photographs, conferment of unfair advantage upon self, and conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice contrary to Section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015, Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and Section 82 of Penal Code, Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, 2006.
“The allegations against the Defendants are subsumed in an amended charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/2023 dated the 19th day of January 2024 and filed on the 22nd day of January 2024.”
But Joe Agi contended that his clients had no case to answer as the ICPC did not fault his position that the diploma student in question was in a “love” relationship with the suspended dean.
However, on March 6, the court overruled the suspended dean and directed him to enter defence on the case.
At the resumed sitting on Tuesday, Agi asked Justice Omotosho to allow him to appeal his ruling and the judge approved it but said the appeal will not stop ICPC’s proceedings before him.
Suspended Dean’s appeal
In four grounds of appeal, particularly in ground three of the proposed notice, Agi argued that the learned trial judge erred in law when the court assumed jurisdiction to hear the charges preferred against the appellants when the charges were not initiated by the due process of law.
Agi stated,
“Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Sections 45 of the Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention) Act 2015, guaranteed the citizen’s right to privacy of their emails and telephones and the laws also made some conditions precedent before a citizen right to privacy can be breached.”
He asked the appellate court to allow his appeal and set aside the ruling of the court below.
“An order of his honourable court discharging and acquitting the appellant of the 4-count charge,” Agi also appealed.
Nairametrics learnt that the date for the hearing of the appeal is yet to be fixed.
More Insights
The ICPC, in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), had on 4th of October, 2023 arrested Ndifon in Calabar, Cross River State after students protested his alleged inappropriate behaviour towards them.
Ndifon was suspended by the university’s management following preliminary investigations.
Upon arraignment, he and Anyanwu pleaded not guilty to the offences.
It is now left for the courts to pronounce the defendants guilty or innocent.