In response to a serious allegation of sexual harassment leveled against Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calabar, the institution’s management has initiated a comprehensive investigation. The accusation came to light on Monday when a viral video surfaced on social media, featuring students from the faculty accusing Prof. Ndifon of engaging in sexual assault and harassment.
Displaying their concerns with placards bearing messages such as “Ndifon must go for our sanity,” “We are tired of buying law journals,” “We are tired of lecturers not attending classes,” and “Law girls are not your bonanza; Prof. Ndifon should stop grabbing us and others,” the students converged at the office of Prof. Florence Obi, the Vice-Chancellor of the university.
CrossRiverWatch, an online news outlet, reported Prof. Ndifon’s denial of the allegations. He expressed that the protest seemed to be orchestrated by certain individuals within the faculty who bore grudges against him. Prof. Ndifon went on to reject the accusations, asserting, “For Christ’s sake, I don’t teach Year 2 B or Year one students, so I don’t know why they have chosen to drag my name into the mud. This was why I said earlier that the allegations were lies, cooked from the pit of hell, just to destroy a reputation that I had spent decades building.”
News reports from Tuesday indicated that the university’s spokesperson, Eyo Bassey, confirmed that the university management had engaged with the concerned parties. Bassey stated, “By the end of today (Tuesday), we will issue a statement. Yesterday (Monday), the students came out with their protest, carrying placards, which you saw online bearing various inscriptions. They were invited by the vice-chancellor. The staffers of the Faculty of Law were invited to come and address management as well as their senior faculty staff about whatever might have been their complaints. They spoke and raised a lot of issues. It is not even just about sexual allegations. There are all kinds of other issues they raised and management commended them for bringing the issues to their attention.”
