The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on Tuesday granted leave to Cyril Ndifon, the suspended dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), to appeal the court’s decision dismissing his no-case submission in the charge against him.
Justice James Omotosho also gave Mr Ndifon’s lawyer, Sunny Anyanwu, the go-ahead to file an appeal against the dismissal of the no-case submission.
Mr Omotosho granted the leave following a motion filed by Messrs Ndifon and Anyanwu’s counsel, Joe Agi, which was not opposed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)’s lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha.
On March 6, the judge dismissed Messrs Ndifon and Anyanwu’s no-case submission, finding that the prosecution’s evidence constituted a prima facie case against them.
Consequently, Mr Omotosho ordered them to enter their defence in the charges against them.
When the matter was called on Tuesday, Akponimisingha informed the court that the matter was slated for the defendants to open their defence and that he was ready to proceed.
But Mr Agi drew the court’s attention to two motions filed on behalf of the defendants. He said the first motion sought the court’s leave to appeal its ruling on their no-case submission, and the second motion sought an order directing the registrar of the court to make Exhibits N and O (Oppo and Tecno Phones) available to the defendants.
Mr Akponimisingha informed the court that his attention was only drawn to the motions on Monday. He said he was not opposing the first motion, which he was seeking leave to appeal.
However, he indicated an interest in opposing the motion to release Mr Ndifon’s two phones to the National Forensic Laboratory.
The judge, who granted the motion seeking leave to appeal his ruling, adjourned the matter until March 19 for the hearing of all pending motions.
On February 19, Messrs Ndifon and Anyanwu filed a no-case submission after the ICPC closed its case.
They had argued that there was no evidence adduced by the prosecution on which the court could convict them and insisted that the commission failed to establish a prima facie case against them.
However, the ICPC, in opposition, filed a counter-affidavit on February 23, praying the court to dismiss the defendants’ no-case submission.
Mr Ndifon was, on January 25, re-arraigned alongside Mr Anyanwu on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and attempt to perverse the cause of justice.
Mr Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defence, was joined in the amended charge filed on January 22 by the ICPC on the allegation that he called TKJ, the star witness, on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon and threatened her.
On February 14, the anti-corruption commission announced the closure of their case after calling four witnesses, including a female diploma student identified as TKJ.
NAN