Court has again ordered the remand of suspended UNICAL Professor as ICPC files substituted charge.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja has again ordered that Professor Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL), be remanded at the Kuje Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the conclusion of his bail application.
This is even as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) applied to the Court to substitute the earlier charge. This was granted with the addition of one Barrister Sunny Anyanwu as 2nd Defendant.
This was contained a statement signed by the ICPC Spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua made available to the press on Thursday in Abuja.
Barrister Anyanwu, before now was one of the lawyers representing the first defendant in Court but was later joined in the suit over an allegation that he threatened one of the star witnesses ICPC lined up for the trial.
Professor Ndifon was first ordered to be remanded at Kuje Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service on the 8th of January, 2024 pending the conclusion of his bail application.
He was granted a temporary bail on January 10, 2024to enable him go for a glaucoma surgery scheduled for January 11, 2024.
At the commencement of the main trial on Thursday, Counsel to the ICPC, Dr. Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha, sought the leave of Court to substitute the earlier charge dated and filed 30thOctober 2023 with an amended charge dated 19th day of January, 2024 and filed on the 22nd day of January, 2024.
Count 4 of the amended charge reads: “That you Professor Cyril Osim Ndifon (M) and Barrister Sunny Anyanwu (M) sometime in the month of November, 2023 or thereabouts, at Abuja within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did conspire among yourselves to call “TKJ” (Not real name) on her mobile telephone number: 070**, a prosecution witness in charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/511/2023 between Federal Republic of Nigeria and Professor Cyril Osim Ndifon during the pendency of the said criminal charge and threatened her not to honour the invitation of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission in respect of the criminal investigation against Professor Cyril Osim Ndifon which conduct, you both knew was intended to perverse the cause of justice and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 182 of the Penal Code Cap. 532 Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, 2006.”
The two defendants however pleaded not guilty when the amended charges were read to them.
Their plea set the tone for the commencement of trial as Counsel to the ICPC, Dr. Akponimisingha, informed the Court that some of the Commission’s witnesses were in Court and were ready to proceed to trial.
