Prof. Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL), on Wednesday, denied allegations that he solicited nude photographs of the female student.

Ndifon denied the allegations before Justice James Omotosho of a Federal High Court in Abuja while being cross-examined by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha.

The professor said the female student, identified as TKJ, was like a daughter to him.

” I got to know her from her uncle. She did not send her nude pictures to me, and I did not demand her nude pictures,” he said.

Ndifon denied that the conversations, pictures and videos extracted by the ICPC were from his phone.

“They are not. If you look at it, we can’t vouch for them; they have been edited. I don’t even know where they got the conversations and videos from,” he said.

He said he did not present the phone he claimed to have used to communicate with TKJ to the ICPC because the anti-corruption commission did not request the student’s phone.

“The prosecution did not deem it necessary to investigate her phone, so why should I bring mine?” he said.

Ndifon admitted to sending the N3 000 to TKJ from his First Bank account and said he had often given her money.

“I sent more than N3,000 to her; sometimes I give her cash,” he said

Justice Omotosho adjourned the matter until Thursday to continue the trial.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suspended dean is standing trial for alleged sexual harassment.

Ndifon is charged alongside his lawyer, Samuel Anyanwu, with four counts of charge sexual harassment, cybercrime and attempt to pervert the course of justice.

The ICPC alleged that Ndifon, while serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at UNICAL, requested the female Diploma student, identified as TKJ and a star witness, to send him “pornographic, indecent and obscene photographs of herself” through WhatsApp chats.

Anyanwu, one of the defence lawyers, was joined in the amended charge filed on Jan. 22, 2024, by the commission, alleging that he threatened the star witness by calling her mobile phone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon.

They both pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them.