By CrossRiverWatch admin
CrossRiverWatch has gathered reliably that the erstwhile Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Professor Cyril Ndifon who the institution suspended for allegedly raping a 20 year old law student in his office is now on the run from operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC who are investigating the matter.
Professor Ndifon who has been on suspension for seven months now had earlier been arrested and detained at the Airport police station in Calabar from where his case file was transferred to police headquarters in Abuja following a petition to the IG of Police by the Nigerian Feminist Forum, NFF.
Ndifon arrived the Police Headquaters October 5, 2015 and was also detained by the police in Abuja and later released on bail.
According to the lawyer to the family of the victim, Barrister James Ibor, “a police report has confirmed that there was penetration but the police could not ascertain that there was force.”
Ibor added that apart from the fact that Professor Ndifon abused his office by having sex with his student in his office as confirmed by the police report, it is also trite law as in the case of “Kazeem Popoola vs. The State (2011) LPELR-4860 (CA)” that it is not necessary to prove injury or the rupture of the hymen to constitute the crime of rape.
CrossRiverWatch further gathered that following petitions from the family and the NFF which were also copied to the ICPC to investigate Professor Ndifon for abuse of office, operatives from the Commission invited Ndifon who has refused to honor the invitation forcing the Commission to commence efforts to arrest him.
Attempts by CrossRiverWatch to speak with the ICPC spokesman, Folu Olamiti were not yet successful as calls to his phones were not picked and a text message to his phone was also not responded to at the time of filing this report but a reliable source in the Commission who is part of the team investigating the allegations against Ndifon said the Commission is still expecting the Professor to honor their invitation and if he does not, efforts are under way to arrest him.
The operative who pleaded anonymity since he is not authorized to speak to the press about the matter said: “We are aware of the report of the IPO in Calabar, Supol Beatrice Odey as well as the commendable work of the Police Headquarters who are investigating the criminal aspect of the matter. We have invited the Professor to come over and let us determine whether he abused the privileges of his office by actually sleeping with his own student in his office. Essentially, our own investigation is not particularly about the criminal aspect of it, it is about whether the professor abused his office. Does the rules of the school allow a student to rewrite an exam in a lecturer’s office after being caught cheating? Those are some of the issues we are investigating and we need his own side of the story but he has refused to come.”
“What we hear now is that he has gone to court to look for protection instead of coming to answer questions. Our operatives are on the lookout for him and we will not hesitate to arrest him once we get him.”
Professor Ndifon who is very notorious among his students for acts of sexual harassment of his students has also unleashed agents on social media to save face by attacking the victim and media organizations following the matter.
Attempts to speak with Professor Ndifon were not successful as his agents were unwilling to comment on the matter accusing CrossRiverWatch of biase.