- + Nelly Idagba’s account
Prof Cyril Osim Ndifon, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, has continued to generate attention as a sequel to protests staged by female undergraduates of the Law faculty, protesting sexual harassment and abuse by the university don.
Ndifon who happens to be the first Cross-River State Professor of Law (2012) was called to the Bar in 1990. A law graduate from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife (1989), he also holds two postgraduate degrees (LL.M and Ph.D.) in Law.
Cyril Osim Ndifon is a specialist in comparative criminal law, International humanitarian law, and International criminal law. He has been teaching at the University of Calabar since his call to Bar.
A member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the National Association of Law Teachers, among others, Ndifon has held several positions in the institution, including Dean, Faculty of Law; Sub-Dean, Faculty of Law; Head of Department; Chairman, Faculty of Law Graduate Board; and Examination officer.
Read the account of Nelly Idagba
Shameful, notDistinguished and notProf Ndifon in my own Eyes and Experience
I believe NotProf Ndifon was meant to be a fine intelligent Man from my own warm part of Nigeria.
Coincidentally married to a cousin of my ‘husband’.
Hmmm…Funny how nature brought the circle around.
I was just turning 18 when I got into his class in year 2. He taught Legal Method in the University of Calabar. This Man, made Legal Method seem like a Thesis in Havard University.
I recalled that faithful day after giving his lectures, he dropped his books on my desk and asked me to carry them and follow him to his office. I innocently did, but that was the beginning of my tragedy with him until I graduated from the faculty with pains and push.
Who doesn’t know NotProf Ndifon and his Monstrous pedophilic disorder in the faculty of Law Calabar? It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl, you must or may have known or sniffed into his evil predatory hunt or even been a victim.
He started his sexual harassment with me immediately I arrived his office to drop his errand books by talking about very erotic stories and how much he liked me, and how I will come out in flying colors if I agree to be his girlfriend.
It seemed really strange to me then because I was raised to reverence my elders, especially a Lecturer/Teacher. I recalled quickly calling my mother to report all he said, she asked that I avoided him completely which I did…But guess what? It still didn’t help one bit!
This man made sure he failed me 3 consecutive times and harassed me at every given time I approached his office to question my result. I recalled he drank a certain tea with hemp constantly in his office which we gossiped about as students because we thought that may have been one of the reasons he always got amorous with little female students. Lol
Some of his words to me that period were —if you do not sleep with me, you will leave the facility with a third class I promise you even if you guide your p*sy I will succeed or you will fail and then he will give a demeaning and sarcastic laughter, he was a nightmare.
One time I sat for his Harvard carry-over while in year 5 writing his course with year 2 students, he walked into the hall and made an announcement saying if you are here and I had asked you not to write this exam walkout I immediately knew he was talking to me but I kept on writing and he walked directly to my desk and used a red biro to cancel each page of what I wrote and asked me to submit. I cried and reported him to a lecturer who saw what he did, in the Lecturers words * sorry I can’t resolve your issue with him because he is my Ph.D. supervisor*
He became a prayer point every evening in my home.
I was so confused at some point that I thought I was a complete daft in Academics until I invited my parents to challenge my scripts. He had apologized to my parents saying he had failed me in error and would correct the results…but he never did.
On one occasion he sent for me just when I opened his office, he immediately grabbed my white shirt trying to pull out my young fragile breast until a lecturer knocked on the door and he ran like a mouse in an open house looking for where to hide. This was my first shameful experience in the faculty of Law because rumors spread like wildfire on a young child’s life.
Again, I reported NotProf Ndifon to the then Dean of the Faculty, to some of his fellow Lecturers, to all and sundry yet I carried my heavy cross like a leper.
We almost had a committee of female Law students suffering from the same virus. Even if the committee had an upper and lower level of which the former were those young ones who couldn’t fight the beast and succumbed to him and the latter were those who tried and stood their fragile ground until the end. I was lucky to fall in the latter otherwise I wouldn’t have ever forgiven myself if he crossed spirits intimately with me.
Anyone who supports this man by joke or esprit de corps is bringing in the wrath of evil upon his or her household. I chose to use these words for his cohorts because if the system was fair and worked, he would have been in jail years ago.
Shame on NotProf Ndifon.
May the God of the universe trap him on this one again and nip his buds down completely.
Thanks to the younger Generations of Law students Calabar for standing up to what i(we) couldn’t.
I specifically thank any Man who condemns this despicable act even if it could have been convenient to have covered or slut shamed these little girls or women.
Fish this NotDistinguised men and women out of the system before it rubs off on us all.
Long live my Alma mater!!!
Nelly Idagba
On Monday, August 14, 2023, a Twitter user identified as @ada_mummyya shared a video showing a group of female UNICAL law students, accompanied by a few male counterparts, protesting for the removal of their dean.
The students were seen raising placards with bold inscriptions like “Prof Ndifon, let girls with big breasts breathe, stop suffocating us”, “We are tired of sucking dicks”, “Prof Ndifon must go for our sanity”, “Law girls are not bonanzas, Prof Ndifon should stop grabbing us”, “The faculty of law is not a brothel” and “Enough of law school list manipulation.”
While @ada_mummyya’s video has only just brought the matter to light, an online search of Professor Ndifon’s name returns a string of articles that link him to allegations of sexual abuse from as far back as 2015.
In a 2016 article, it was reported that Prof Ndifon was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old year student in his office on August 29, 2015. The incident led to Ndifon’s suspension by the university management. He was only to return to office once he was completely exonerated from the allegations of sexual misconduct.
The aggrieved professor took the matter to court, and on September 21, 2016, the National Industrial Court in Calabar, presided over by Justice Eunice Agbakoba, dismissed the suit.
On November 16, 2017, reports that the university management had recalled Professor Ndifon made headlines with pictures of his arrival on the university premises.
On January 30, 2023, an article published in the campus news segment of UNICAL’s website announced the re-election of Professor Ndifon as the dean of the faculty of law. According to the release, Ndifon’s tenure is to run for two years, from January 27, 2023, to January 26, 2025.
The re-election didn’t sit well with the students, who are still accusing Professor Ndifon of sexual misconduct and the school authority of attempting a cover-up.
In December 2022, a civil society organisation, Sacredhearts Gender Protection Initiative, wrote to the UNICAL management, querying the reinstatement and promotion of Professor Ndifon despite allegations of misconduct.
A portion of the letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, read “…we therefore find it hard to understand the basis for which Ndifon who is under investigation for sexual assault against a female law student was reinstated as a staff of the university and made Dean of the Law Faculty. Is it that the Management of the University of Calabar has no moral standard for measuring or distinguishing right from wrong?
The group equally vowed to hit the streets and protest the reinstatement of Professor Ndifon.
“Our organization together with other Civil Society groups involved in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) activities will lead a protest march and advocacy visit to international organizations and foreign embassies in the Federal Capital Territory to call your university management to order.”
A number of Nigerians have also taken to social media in solidarity with the protesting students, calling for the professor’s immediate removal.
Credits: Zikoko.com with additional reports from LawblogNG.
