Court Sentences UNICAL Professor Cyril Ndifon to Five Years Imprisonment
By Erewunmi Peace
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sentenced suspended University of Calabar (UNICAL) law professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, to five years imprisonment after finding him guilty of sexual harassment and abuse of office.
The judgment, delivered on Wednesday, followed a case instituted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which accused Ndifon of sexually exploiting a female law student and demanding nude images in exchange for academic favours.
Justice James Omotosho ruled that the prosecution successfully proved its case, convicting the professor on two counts of sexual harassment and abuse of power. The court handed him a five-year jail term, with an additional two-year term on the secondary count, both to run concurrently.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted Ndifon’s co-defendant, his lawyer Sunny Anyanwu, citing insufficient evidence linking him to the alleged misconduct.
Prof. Ndifon had been suspended by UNICAL in 2023 after students staged protests accusing him of serial sexual harassment. The ICPC subsequently filed charges following its investigation.
The judgment has been widely hailed by rights advocates as a significant step in Nigeria’s effort to curb sexual harassment in academic institutions.
