Israel Adeleke
The University of Calabar (UNICAL) has implemented significant changes within its Law Faculty in response to allegations of sexual harassment against the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Cyril Ndifon.
The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University, Prof. Florence Obi, in an interview on a television show on Saturday, revealed that the university’s management had carried out a comprehensive review of the law faculty, resulting in the appointment of women to all principal officer positions.
She said that the motive behind this decision was to establish preventive measures aimed at reducing instances of sexual harassment between faculty members and students, particularly female students.
PLATFORM TIMES had earlier reported that some female law students at the faculty had staged a protest and accused Ndifon of sexual harassment.
Following this, the university suspended Ndifon and initiated a panel to investigate the allegations.
Addressing the situation, the vice chancellor emphasized, “In my university, we have put up so many measures that we know, going forward, nobody in the Faculty of Law will hold students to ransom and make any female student vulnerable to having an immoral relationship.
“We have put about seven committees in place. There is a committee to assign students to supervisors because there are accusations that the suspended dean took all female students to supervise, and that made them vulnerable to his advances. Now, there is a committee to handle that.
Furthermore, Prof. Obi noted, “There is a committee to look at mobilization to law school which students alleged in their protest letter to us that they (staff) use that as intimidation, as a way to getting some of them to succumb.
If they don’t accept, they may not be mobilized to law school. We have set up a committee to do that.
“There is a result vetting committee. We have also made a clean sweep in the faculty where we have the acting dean, for now, a woman; the sub dean, a woman; the faculty officer, a woman. We want to ensure that the students are protected.”
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