The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, convicted the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar, UNICAL, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, and sentenced him to five years in prison for sexually harassing his female students.

In its verdict delivered by Justice James Omotosho, the court found him guilty on two out of the four-count charge brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.

However, the court discharged and cleared his co-accused, lawyer Mr. Sunny Anyanwu, who had been accused of attempting to obstruct the course of justice in the case.

The court held that the evidence presented by the prosecution was insufficient to link the second defendant to the commission of any offence.

While Justice Omotosho sentenced Prof. Ndifon to two years in prison in one of the counts of the charge that was sustained by the court, he was handed five-year jail term on another count.

The court held that both sentences would run concurrently.

The ICPC had alleged that Ndifon, while serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at UNICAL, harassed his female students by demanding explicit photos from them.

He was alleged to have asked a particular female diploma student whose identity was replaced with the pseudonym ‘TJK’, to send him “pornographic, indecent and indecent photographs of herself” through WhatsApp chats.

The said student was among the four witnesses the ICPC produced that testified before the court.

Allegations against the defendants bordered on sexual harassment, cybercrime, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

After the ICPC closed its case on February 14, 2024, the embattled Dean filed a no-case-sunmission which the court dismissed on March 6, 2024, and ordered him to open his defence to the charge.

In his defence, Prof. Ndifon testified as his own witness, while one CSP Babagana Mingali, a forensic analyst at the laboratory of the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, also appeared as second witness, DW-2.

While denying the allegation against him, the 1st defendant insisted that the prosecution failed to by way of any credible evidence, establish a prima-facie case against him.

He contended that the totality of the testimony of all the witnesses, among whom included the alleged victim, were not sufficient or such that any court could rely upon to make a conviction.