A mild drama ensued at a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, after Justice James Omotosho adjourned the hearing of a bail application of the suspended Dean of Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, until Jan. 31.
The adjournment followed the objection of counsel for the prosecution, Osuobeni Akponimisingha that he was just being served with Ndifon’s further affidavit and would need time to study the process in the interest of fair hearing.
The development did not go down well with Solomon Umoh, SAN, who appeared for Ndifon and Sunny Anyanwu, the co-defendant.
Newspot reports that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, is prosecuting Ndifon and Anyanwu (1st and 2nd defendants) on allegations bordering on sexual harassment and threatening the star witness in the case.
Anyanwu, who is one of the lawyers in the defense, 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.
However, Justice Omotosho had, on Thursday, ordered the two defendants to be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre pending the hearing of their bail applications.
The judge, who adjourned the matter until today, held that the bail request would be taken after the trial.
When the matter was called on Friday for continuation of trial, Umoh prayed the court to allow the hearing of his client’s bail applications before the trial but Akponimisingha opposed it, saying that based on the previous day’s directive of the court, the trial should be taken first.
The ICPC lawyer argued further that he was just being served with the latest application filed on Thursday by Umoh and that he would need time to study it whether to respond or not.
But Umoh told the court that Akponimisingha was being economical with the truth because he was aware of the medical report attached to the application already and that the instant application was just an adjunct.
He said when the judge admitted Ndifon to temporary bail on Jan. 10 to enable him to go for a glaucoma surgery slated for Jan. 11, it took them about a week to perfect the bail before the professor could proceed.
He said the latest documents attached to the bail application had been verified by the ICPC in Exhibit PF3.
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