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October 1, 2023
SaharaReporters in August reported that female students of the faculty of law at UNICAL staged a protest in the university, demanding the immediate removal of Ndifon for allegedly sexually harassing them.
Some students and past students of the University of Calabar have narrated to a probe panel how the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law in the school, Prof. Cyril Ndifon allegedly sexually molested and harassed them in his office.
The probe panel set up by the University of Calabar to investigate allegations of sexual harassment of female students by the suspended Dean of the school’s Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof. Cyril Ndifon, has found the senior lecturer guilty of gross misconduct.
In the report of the panel set up to investigate alleged misconduct, sexual harassment and abuse of office levelled against Prof. Ndifon, obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday, it “established that the suspended Dean, Prof. Cyril Osim Ndifon was using his official position to both intimidate and bargain for sexual favour from female students in the Faculty of Law”.
It also “established that the suspended Dean had been involved in students’ exploitation”.
“Elaborately, he had been perpetrating cruelty against students by forestalling the graduation of especially some female students at the appropriate time by withholding and refusing to release their results and threatening some that they would never graduate from the Faculty or go to the law school,” the panel stated in the report.
SaharaReporters in August reported that female students of the faculty of law at UNICAL staged a protest in the university, demanding the immediate removal of Ndifon for allegedly sexually harassing them.
Though Ndifon had claimed that the allegation of sexual harassment was plotted against him because he won the faculty election, the university management suspended him and constituted a panel to investigate the allegation.
The school’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, constituted the administrative panel to thoroughly investigate the allegations against Ndifon.
Earlier in September, SaharaReporters reported that Ndifon failed to appear before the panel constituted to investigate the allegations against him.
According to the report, Ndifon was “properly invited thrice by the Panel to come and defend himself but he failed to appear”.
The invitations were done through written memos, text and WhatsApp messages, as well as radio announcements, the panel said.
The panel added that it had to “rely on his responses to the 10-point query issued to him by the University as guidance. The call for memoranda was published in two Nigerian widely circulated National dailies namely, Leadership and the Sun Newspapers, as well as scroll bars on national television like AIT.
“The panel received memoranda from six academic staff of the Faculty of Law, students of the Faculty of Law, as well as alumni of the same Faculty. Some academic staff that did not send in memoranda were also invited. These included three Professors, Associate Professors and other categories of academic staff totalling fifteen in all. Ten females testified regarding sexual harassment.
“The students that testified concerning non-approved payments were thirteen in number including the LAWSAN president, Mr. Ben Otu.”
According to the panel, it held 10 sittings to accomplish the task.
To protect the identities of the students who alleged that Ndifon sexually harassed or assaulted them, SaharaReporters will only identify them as ‘Survivors’ as put in the report.
Survivor 1, a 200L student told the panel that he met Ndifon while working on her transfer from the Department of Conflict Studies to the Law Faculty.
The suspended Dean promised to help her get into the Law Faculty on the condition that “she would be answerable to every sexual call put across to her….” Ndifon called her to come to the office the next day and when she arrived there, he locked the door and brought out his penis.
She said Ndifon told her that if she sucked his manhood, he would accept her into the Faculty.
The report said, “After much pressure from the suspended Dean and feeling frustrated, this survivor gave in and sucked his penis and almost got choked as Prof. Ndifon held her head while forcing his penis into her mouth.
“She further testified that someone else later assisted her to get admission into the Faculty of Law. When Prof. Ndifon saw her, he asked what she was doing in the Faculty of Law. She informed him that she had been admitted into the Faculty. He then sent for her again but she lied to him that she was in the hospital.”
She read to the panel different text messages from the suspended Dean to her. She also read the voice notes from him to her after the protest of August 14, 2023 by students of the Faculty, warning her to stay away from the investigation panel.
Another survivor, a 300L student narrated that she met Ndifon when she went to take an examination in an elective course titled “Social and Political Philosophy.”
Due to the medication which she had to take, she arrived late at the examination venue only to be told that the answer scripts had been exhausted. Ndifon saw her and her friend not writing and came to their rescue by arranging for answer booklets so that they could also take the examination.
After the examination, she and her friend felt it was proper to go and thank him. When they got to his office, he asked them if they wrote well and that if they were not sure, he could help them get good grades in the course since he had someone in the Department who could help. She admitted sending her matriculation number and that of her friend to Ndifon due to his insistence and he asked them to see him the following day.
The next day, she and her friend went to see him and as they were about entering the office, he sent her friend on an errand. When she and Ndifon entered the office, the latter locked the door and asked her to give him a hug. Initially, she felt there was nothing wrong with giving the Professor a hug. But when she hugged him, Prof. Ndifon pressed her so tightly to his body and brought his lips to kiss hers and she started struggling with him to free herself.
The account further said Ndifon kissed her neck and forehead several times. She got free when her friend returned. Prof. Ndifon sent her a text message another day to come and see him. When she got to the office, he forcefully grabbed her breasts and tried to have sex with her but she resisted him.
The panel said it investigated the survivor’s narrative regarding the elective course in Social and Political Philosophy and confirmed her narrative that “Ndifon actually sent two students’ matric numbers to the Professor that taught the elective course”.
The Course Lecturer was invited by the Panel and he confirmed that he received a text message from Prof. Ndifon with those two matric numbers but at the time the text message came, he had already finished marking his scripts and that the survivor had a B grade.
The panel called for the script of the student and did not find any form of manipulation on the part of the Professor who taught and graded the scripts.
Another survivor who spoke to the panel from overseas via zoom said she gained admission to study
law in 2001 and graduated in 2008 instead of 2006.
Prof. Ndifon was her legal system lecturer and the examinations officer in the survivor’s 4th year. She narrated that Ndifon made several sexual advances to her which she turned down. She said on a few occasions, he asked her to accompany him to his office and groped her breasts and attempted to grope her vagina by inserting his hand under her skirt. She resisted his attempts to have sex with her. She received an “F” grade in Prof. Ndifon’s Legal System (second semester).
She carried the course over to her third year and failed again. When the candidate inquired from him about the reason for failing his course consistently, the report said Mr Ndifon as he was at the time, told her that “she had refused to have sex with him and that the trend would continue unless she yielded to his request to have sex with him.”
This candidate refused to register again for the Nigerian Legal System in Year 4 and consequently did not take the examination for the said course as she knew she would fail again.
She took her final exam in June 2006. However, Ndifon never published her 4th year results until sometime in 2007/2008. This survivor reported her experience with Prof. Ndifon to her project supervisor, Mr. E.E. Eja (now late). Eja intervened on her behalf and her 4th year result was published showing Ndifon had awarded her a B grade for the Nigerian legal system, which was what she merited in 2002/2003.
“The investigation panel contacted the exams and records office of the University and confirmed that the survivor’s account regarding her results is true. She actually failed the Nigerian Legal system in her second year (second semester). She carried it over to her third year and failed again. There is no record of any fourth-year result. However, she graduated with a second-class lower (2.2),” the report said.
Another survivor, a legal practitioner of 16 years post-call who obtained her LLB certificate from the University of Calabar in 2006, testified via Zoom after adopting her sworn statement. She told the panel that she came in contact with Ndifon because of her final-year project.
Her assigned project supervisor, one Dr O. Igwe was operating from Port Harcourt and so directed some of his project supervisees, including herself to Mr. Ndifon as he was then, to assist in supervision as the need arose.
She went to see Mr. Ndifon to discuss an issue regarding her project. She waited for her turn to see him and after a while, he opened his door and invited her inside. Without suspecting anything, Ndifon quickly locked the door behind her. While trying to figure out what he was up to, he started unzipping his trousers to bring out his genitals while launching at her to hold her down.
Realizing what was about to happen, she started crying and pleading that he should open the door and let her go. Ndifon ignored her pleas and continued with his attempt to embrace her while undressing at the same time.
According to her, she was traumatised by the situation and immediately became sick to the point of feeling faint and vomiting all over the office.
This made Ndifon leave her and then implored her to clean up herself, promising to open the door after she had regained composure.
The three professors who were invited were asked questions regarding the happenings in the faculty including allegations of sexual harassment by the suspended Dean. Two of them said that they had heard rumours about such but refused to work on rumours.
According to the report, only one of them was bold enough to speak out and told the panel the actions he had taken to save several female students from being frustrated by Ndifon. The Professor informed the Panel that the female students had come on several occasions to complain to him about Ndifon demanding “blow job” or that he “touched my breasts”.
The report stated, “That Prof. Ndifon had been using the “blow job” to sexually harass female students in return for grades. He said that he had on some occasions gone to beg the suspended Dean to release withheld results of students who refused to do his “blow job” and he released the said results.
“The professor told the panel that the girls “are scared to death.” That is why they had not been reporting the incidents. Additionally, a female lecturer in the Faculty also confirmed the suspended Dean’s inappropriate behavior towards the female gender.
“She told the panel that she experienced such on some occasions when she went to his office as she was her supervisor. She stated that some of the female lecturers in the faculty have experienced such also. She said that she even had to intervene on behalf of one female student who had failed his course because she refused to do “blow job”. The girl later graduated and has gone to Law School.”