A Federal High Court in Abuja admitted in evidence two mobile phones seized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) from Prof. Cyril Ndifon.
Justice James Omotosho admitted the mobile devices; an Oppo Phone and a Tecno Pova Phone with their chargers after they were tendered by the ICPC’s lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, and the application was not opposed by the defence counsel, Joe Agi, SAN.
It is reported that Justice Omotosho had, on Friday, granted bail to Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL), in the sum of N250 million with two sureties in the like sum. The judge also admitted Sunny Anyanwu, a lawyer charged alongside Mr Ndifon, to a N50 million bail with two sureties.
NAN reports that Ndifon was, on Jan. 25, re-arraigned alongside Anyanwu as 1st and 2nd defendants on an amended four-count charge bordering on alleged sexual harassment and attempt to perverse the cause of justice.
Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defence, was joined in the amended charge filed on Jan. 22 by the ICPC on the allegation that he called one of the prosecution witnesses on her mobile telephone during the pendency of the charge against Ndifon to threaten her. At the resumed trial, Akponimisingha told the court that the matter was slated for continuation of hearing and two witnesses were in court.
The 3rd prosecution witness (PW3), Mr Tani Karngong, an Exhibit Keeper with ICPC, said his duty was to receive and secure exhibits seized from suspects by the anti-corruption commission’s investigators. He said besides keeping exhibits, he documents and assigns exhibits to a team for forensic analysis.
“I am the only one who has access to the exhibit room and I have hand gloves that I wear so that there will be no contamination,” he said. The PW3 said the two phones were received with pouches, including two documents in respect of the phones, from their investigators on Oct. 9, 2023.
