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Professor Cyril Ndifon, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), has been placed on administrative leave after charges of breaking the organization’s rules and regulations.
The suspension was announced in a letter from Mr. Gabriel Egbe, the university registrar, and it became effective on August 17, 2023.
History of the Suspension
The University Management’s decision to suspend Prof. Cyril Ndifon was a result of how he handled a question that was directed at him.
After hearing his statement, the Vice Chancellor voiced displeasure with his justifications, which led to the suspension that followed.
Suspension Information
Please refer to our letter Ref UC/REG/DISC.45A dated August 14, 2023 on your alleged infringement of the terms of the University’s current laws and policies, as well as your answer to that letter, which was dated August 16, 2023, according to the official letter.
Prof. Ndifon has lost his position as Dean of the Faculty of Law due to the Vice Chancellor’s displeasure.
In addition, he has been suspended while the accusations are being looked into.
A panel that will be assembled especially for this probe will conduct it.
The suspension became effective in August.
Additionally, he must abstain from entering University property until invited to do so by the panel in charge of the investigation.
Correspondence has previously reported on how law school students protested professor Ndifon after learning of his sexual misconduct with female students.
The protesting students held signs with statements that appeared to support their demand, which was motivated by the dean’s unchecked sexual harassment of female students.
“Professor Ndifon, let the girls with big breasts breathe,” reads one of the inscriptions. “Stop suffocating us,” “We are sick of sucking dicks,” and “Professor Ndifon must leave for our sanity” are some of the demands made.
Benedict Otu, president of the UNICAL section of the Law Students Association of Nigeria, led the demonstration.
In response to the students’ protest, Prof. Ndifon labeled the claims made by the students as “lies” by his detectors meant to damage his name.
Cross River Watch cited him as saying, “It hasn’t been easy since I emerged as Dean of the Faculty after defeating certain people in a hotly contested election. I had avoided a number of mines.
These unfounded accusations were planned by a critic of mine who had sworn to damage my reputation because I had twice won the faculty elections.
It won’t work, I said. My coworkers who are determined to ruin me by damaging my reputation. Where are the victims of sexual harassment, is the query. Can someone sexually harass females without the women coming forward to report the incident?
I don’t teach Year 2 or Year 1 students, for Christ’s sake, so
Despite his valiant defense, the dean was fired in September 2015 as a result of a petition to the vice chancellor at the time, Prof. James Ekpoke, for allegedly raping a student in his personal office.
In 2016, he filed a lawsuit against the organization in Calabar’s National Industrial Court, but he was unsuccessful. The following year, he also made an effort to stop the Federal High Court in Calabar from investigating and prosecuting him for abuse of authority by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). Justice Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, nonetheless dismissed the case.
However, in 2021, he was reappointed and reinstated as the head of the university’s law faculty by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Florence Obi.
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