‘Sexual assault’: Ex-UNICAL dean asks court to quash case, says ICPC lawyer not qualified

Cyril Ndifon, the suspended dean at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), has asked a federal high court in Abuja to quash the four-count criminal charge preferred against him.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had charged Ndifon to court over sexual assault allegations, alongside his co-defendant Sunny Anyanwu.

The academic was removed as a UNICAL dean in August 2023 for allegedly using his office to abuse female students.

A UNICAL investigative panel found the professor, who has since been replaced, guilty.

The ICPC similarly investigated the professor’s alleged gross misconduct and got him arrested on October 4.

The commission arraigned the senior lecturer on a four-count charge bordering on sexual harassment, official corruption, and abuse of office.

Ndifon was re-arraigned on January 25 with Anyanwu, his associate who allegedly threatened a witness during the pendency of the case.

But in a recent application filed on March 15, Ndifon, through his lawyer, Joe Agi, alleged that the amended charge filed by Osuobeni Akponimisingha, a lawyer of the ICPC, is incompetent. 

Agi alleged that Akponimisingha’s name was not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria pursuant to Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act.

He also alleged that “Joshua E. Alobo who appears for the prosecution as counsel as a private legal practitioner in a criminal case does not have the fiat of the honourable attorney-general of the federation”.

“That both Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha and Joshua E. Alobo answer in this court and caused to print on their processes the title “Dr.” “Professor” when they do not have the academic qualifications to show for the titles, thereby misrepresenting themselves to the public and bringing legal profession to ridicule and shame,” Agi said. 

Therefore, Agi sought an order striking out the amended charge for been incompetent and “preferred by a person whose name is not on the roll of Legal Practitioners in Nigeria pursuant to Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act and thus robbing this court of its jurisdiction.”

“An order of court striking out all the appearance of Joshua E. Alobo from the prosecution counsel for appearing as a private legal practitioner in a criminal case without the fiat of the honourable attorney-general of the federation,” he said. 

“An order of court referring both Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha and Joshua E. Alobo to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for answering and caused to print on their processes the title ‘Dr’ and ‘Professor’ when they do not have the academic qualifications to show for the titles thereby misrepresenting themselves to the public and bringing legal profession to ridicule and shame.”