The Dean of Faculty of Law of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof Cyril Ndifon has reacted to the allegations of s£xu*l h*rassm€nt by female law students.
Some law students had staged a protest to show their grievances in the institution over alleged unending s£xual molestation by Prof Ndifon.
DAILY GIST learnt that Prof. Ndifon, a controversial figure in the Faculty is not new to S£xual scandals.
In 2015, he was suspended for luring a 20 year-old 400L Student into his office from exam hall and r*ping her.
In a viral video obtained by DAILY GIST, the students were seen holding placards with different inscriptions, calling out the lecturer for allegedly h*rassing them.
The students during the protest said they were tired of the assault.
The protesters were led by the President of the Law Students Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), UNICAL branch, Comrade Benedict Otu.
The placards had various inscriptions like “Ndifon Must Go”, “We Are Tired of Buying Law Journals”, “We Are Tired of Lecturers Not Attending Classes”, and “We Are S€xually Harassed”.
“Ndifon should stop grabbing us. The Faculty of Law is not a brothel.” “Prof. Ndifon, let the girls with big breasts breathe, don’t suffocate us.” “We are tired of sucking dicks,” another placard reads.
The allegations have, however, generated reactions on social media, with many joining the students to lend their voices against the alleged s€xual har*ssm£nt.
However in an interview with an online platform, CrossRiverWatch, Ndifon debunked the sexual allegations and described the allegations as barefaced lies aimed at tarnishing his image.
He claimed that the protest by the law students was sponsored by some persons in the faculty who had sworn to pull him down.
He said: “Since I defeated some persons in an election that was keenly contested, to emerge as Dean of the faculty, it hasn’t been easy. I had skipped several booby traps.
“These allegations are baselessly masterminded by my detractor, who had vowed to ensure that my image is dragged to the mud just because I won the faculty elections twice.
“If you look at the placards you will discover that the placards have one person’s handwriting. Again how come the protesters know that we were holding a meeting with the Vice Chancellor if it is not the handiwork of an insider.
“We were supposed to hold a meeting with the Vice Chancellor to enable us iron out important issues troubling us in the faculty, while the meeting was on-going, we were told that some students were outside with placards, protesting against me, demanding that I should be unseated.
“From what am told, LAWSAN President, Benedict Otu, cajoled some students that they were to go for a meeting with the Vice Chancellor at her office, only to dish out placards bearing false representations about the Dean, and asked his colleagues to chant slogans that berated my personality.
“This won’t work. Colleagues of mine who are bent on tarnishing my reputation just to destroy me. The question is where are the victims of sexual harassment. Can someone harass girls without the ladies coming out to raise the alarm that they were sexually harassed?
“For Christ 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 to 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.”