Sexual Harassment: Court Grants Ndifon, Lawyer Leave To Challenge Dismissal Of No-Case Motion

Justice James Omotosho on Tuesday, granted leave to the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL) and his lawyer, Mr Sunny Anyanwu to appeal the judgement of the Court which dismissed their no-case submission in the charges preferred against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The Judge granted the leave following a motion to that effect by Joe Agi (SAN), counsel representing the UNICAL professor and his co-defendant, which was not opposed by the prosecution.

Justice Omotosho had, recently, dismissed the no-case submission filed by Prof. Ndifon and his lawyer, Anyanwu, against the charge slammed against them by ICPC on the ground that, the evidence led by the prosecution constituted a prima facie case against the duo.

Consequently, Justice Omotosho ordered Ndifon, and Anyanwu to enter their defence in the charges filed against them.

When the matter was called on Tuesday, the prosecution counsel, Dr. Osuobeni Akponimisingha informed the court that, the matter was slated for the defendants to open their defence and that, he was ready but, Agi (SAN) drew the attention of the Court to two motions filed by defendants.

The first motion seeks the leave of the court to appeal its ruling on their no case submission and the second motion seeks an order directing the registrar of the court to make available exhibits N and O to the defendants.

The prosecution counsel, Dr. Akponimisingha, who informed the court that his attention was only drawn to the motions on Monday said, he is not opposing the first motion, seeking leave to appeal, but intends to oppose the motion seeking, “The release of the phones of the defendants to the purported National Forensic Laboratory”.

In a short ruling, Justice Omotosho granted the motion seeking leave to appeal and adjourned till March 19 for a hearing of all pending motions in the matter.

Ndifon and Anyanwu had, on February 19, filed a no-case submission after the ICPC closed its case, saying, there was no evidence adduced by the prosecution on which the court could convict them and insisted that the commission failed to establish a prima facie case against them.

But the ICPC, in opposition, filed a counter affidavit on February 23, praying the court to dismiss the no-case submission of the defendants.

Ndifon was, on January 25, re-arraigned alongside Anyanwu on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and an attempt to perverse the cause of justice.

Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defence, was joined in the amended charge filed on January 22 by the ICPC on the allegation that he called TKJ, the star witness, on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon and threatened her.

The anti-corruption lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, had, on February 14, announced the closure of their case after calling four witnesses, including a female diploma student identified as TKJ.