The suspended dean of Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL) Prof. Cyril Ndifon has urged a Federal High Court in Abuja to quash the sexual harassment charge against him on the basis that the prosecuting lawyer Osuobeni Akponimisingha was not qualified to practise as lawyer.
Ndifon stated this to Justice James Omotosho in an affidavit filed by his lawyer Joe Agi.
He claimed that Akponimisingha’s name was not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria pursuant to Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act.
The affidavit deposed to by Ndifon’s co-defendant Sunny Anyanwu was in response to ICPC lawyer’s counter affidavit filed against their motion on notice.
Ndifon, in the earlier motion dated and filed March 15, had told the court that the amended charge was incompetent as a result of the disputed identity of the anti-graft agency’s lawyer.
He said the development had robbed the court of its jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
He, therefore, prayed the court to quashed the four-count charge against him and his co-defendant Mr Anyanwu.
Akponimisingha, in his counter affidavit dated March 20, accused the suspended dean and his legal team of being jealous of his academic qualifications.
The lawyer, who attached his Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)’s Practising Licence document dated 2016 with the counter affidavit, said he graduated from law school.
He said contrary to the defence argument, the appellation ‘Dr’ added to his name was as a result of an additional academic qualification acquired by him after he had been called to the bar as a legal practitioner.
He equally alleged that the names of the lead counsel to the defendants, Agi, and other senior advocates appearing with him in the criminal case, were not on roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria.
Akponimisingha told the court that the present application by the defence was a delay tactics deployed to stall the trial.
He urged the court to reject their plea.
Court orders UNICAL professor Cyril Ndifon, lawyer to open defence
But Ndifon, in a further affidavit deposed to by Anyanwu, stated that contrary to Akponimisingha’s argument, the defence was not challenging the appellation ‘Dr’ added to his name.
Rather, he said their contention was that the name “Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha” is not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria and that a search conducted revealed that one Ekoi A. Osuobeni was called to the bar in Nigeria in 2012.
When the matter was called on Monday, the ICPC lawyer told Justice Omotosho that the defendant brought a letter stating that the learned silk in the matter was having another matter at the Supreme Court.
Fisong Fidelis, who appeared for the defence, confirmed filing the letter before the court.
Justice Omotosho, who expressed his displeasure about the way the matter had degenerated, said parties had left the main issue “and are now attacking their academic qualifications”.
The judge, therefore, directed the lawyers of the parties, including representatives of Federation of International Women Lawyers and NBA to meet with him in his chambers on Wednesday so they could take a position on the development.
Justice Omotosho consequently fixed April 19 to rule on Ndifon’s motion seeking an order allowing the defendants to have an independent forensic examiner to look at some of the exhibits tendered by the ICPC.
Ndifon was, on January 25, re-arraigned alongside Anyanwu on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and 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 allegation that he called TKJ, the star witness, on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon to threaten her.
