PRMIUM TIMES
While Cyril Ndifon, a professor of law and suspended dean of the law faculty at the University of Calabar, is standing trial over alleged sexual harassment of female students, another professor of law accused of a similar offence walks about freely.
Mr Ndifon is being prosecuted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission at a Federal High Court, in Abuja.
Enefiok Essien’s story
The accused professor, yet to be held to be properly investigated or prosecuted, is Enefiok Essien, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria’s south-south.
Mr Essien was named in a ruling on 14 July 2005 by the Court of Appeal, Calabar, which affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court, Calabar, nullifying the university’s expulsion of a female student, Linda Essell, over her alleged involvement in examination malpractice.
Ms Essell, at the time she was accused of examination malpractice in March 1995, was in her second year as a law student at the University of Uyo, while Mr Essien was a senior lecturer then in the university’s law faculty.
Besides denying the allegation of examination malpractice, Ms Essell was able to convince both the trial and the appellate court that Mr Essien manipulated the university system against her because she had refused to accede to his love overtures.
Interestingly, it was Mr Essien, who invigilated Ms Essell in the examination that she was accused of malpractice. It was he who accused her of malpractice. It was also he who chaired the Examination Malpractice Panel that tried Ms Essell, which the courts ruled as being against the principles of fair hearing and natural justice.
Ms Essell also told the court in her affidavit that Mr Essien, as chairperson of the Examination Malpractice Panel, forged and signed the signature of another member of the panel, Mr Akpan, as well as doctored the proceedings of the panel.
The Court of Appeal in its judgement delivered by Justice Dalhatu Adamu declared that Ms Essell’s statements as contained in her affidavit were a “serious indictment on Essien”.
Since there was no counter-affidavit by Mr Essien, the court in its unanimous decision, held that Ms Essell’s allegations “not having been challenged, contradicted and controverted, must be deemed to be true and correct.”
University of Uyo and Mr Essien did not appeal the judgement and Ms Essell went on to complete her first law degree and graduated from the university.
About 10 years later, the University of Uyo ignored Mr Essien’s indictment for sexual harassment and forgery and went ahead to appoint him as the vice-chancellor of the federal government-owned institution, despite PREMIUM TIMES extensive reporting on the matter.
In fact, Comfort Ekpo, a professor and the then vice-chancellor of the University of Uyo, whom Mr Essien took over from, had requested the then Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to suspend Mr Essien’s inauguration as the vice-chancellor because of his indictment for sexual assault and forgery.
Mr Essien, in September 2017, was bestowed with the title of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the highest honour in the law profession in Nigeria despite the opposition to it by some civil society organisations.
‘If NBA is serious…’
The prosecution of Mr Ndifon for alleged sexual harassment, while Mr Essien walks freely and even gets elevated and celebrated highlights the disparity in the application of the rule of law in Nigeria.
