Prof. Cyril Ndifon
More details continue to emerge in the rape scandal involving the University of Calabar Dean of the Law Faculty, Cyril Ndifon which made headline news last week.
Professor Ndifon has been placed on
suspension in the university following a complaint by his victims mother
to authorities. In the meantime, Ndifon’s fans have taken to social
media to conduct a campaign attacking the character of his victim
unlawfully circulating her name and photos online.
Former students of Ndifon have joined
the campaign to bring the law professor to justice by petitioning the
Commissioner of Police of Cross River State. In a letter dated September
14, 2015 and signed by thirty-one barristers and solicitors of the
Supreme Court of Nigeria who graduated from UNICAL in the class of 97,
the concerned alumni call for justice for the victim and say that the
allegations against Ndifon is “all too familiar” and allege that their
class, of 200 students, alone “teems with victims of his intimidation,
sexual harassment, and sexual predation”.
The petition reveals the sad details of
how the female student was allegedly subjected to brutal rape twice in
the dean’s office and further humiliated by being made to carry his bag
to his car. According to the lawyers, who are a mix of male and female,
Ndifon marked his victim and set her up, creating a situation where he
could be alone with her in his office on a Saturday where he had told
her to sit and write her examination which he intentionally disrupted
for the purpose of preying on the victim.
The petition recounts how Ndifon stopped
his victim, midway into her examination, forcefully disrobed her and
raped her. Not done, he locked her in his office only to return 30
minutes later. He ordered her to remove her clothes “by the count of
three” and rape her all over again, even has she knelt down, crying, and
pleading with him to spare her the pain.
The lawyers allege that the student was
subjected to a two-hour rape ordeal at the hands of Professor Ndifon and
he only stopped raping her when he saw that she was losing
consciousness.
They also accuse the law Professor of
being “an absolute monster” who shouldn’t have been employed by the
university in the first place. “Prof. Cyril Osim Ndifon was a law
undergraduate of the University of Calabar in the 1980’s. However, in
his second or third year, the University rusticated him for
cultism-related activities,” the petition reads. “It is our opinion that
based on the character deficit which his rustication typifies; the
University should not have employed him.”
“We are dismayed that the University of
Calabar eventually offered him a position as an academic staff and thus
gave him a platform which he used to pursue his mischief for about two
decades now.
“It is our opinion that based on the
character deficit which his rustication typifies; the University should
not have employed him.
“There is thus no doubt in our minds
that by its negligence or perhaps even outright refusal to carry out a
thorough background check on Prof. Cyril Osim Ndifon, the University of
Calabar unleashed an absolute monster on the hapless students of the
University in general and students of the Faculty of Law in particular.”
The petition was copied to the Inspector
General of Police, the Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice of Cross
River State, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 6
Headquarters in Calabar, the Director-General, Department of State
Security, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar,
the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, the Executive
Secretary, National Universities Commission, the National President,
Nigerian Bar Association, the Chairman, Council of Legal Education,
the Director-General, Nigerian Law School, Abuja, the Chairman, Legal
Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee, Abuja among others.
To Read the full petition CLICK HERE
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