Court Hears UNICAL Professor’s Plea To Appeal Ruling.

Federal High Court, in Abuja has granted leave to Professor Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, UNICAL, to appeal the decision of the court dismissing his no-case submission in the charge against him.

Justice James Omotosho also gave Ndifon’s lawyer, Mr Sunny Anyanwu, the go-ahead to file an appeal against the dismissal of the no-case submission.

Justice Omotosho granted the leave following a motion filed by Ndifon and Anyanwu’s counsel, Joe Agi, SAN, which was not opposed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC’s lawyer, OsuobeniAkponimisingha.

This is coming after the judge had, on March 6, dismissed the no-case submission filed by Ndifon and Anyanwu on the ground that the evidence led by the prosecution constituted a prima facie case against them, while, Justice Omotosho ordered them to enter their defence in the charges filed against them.When the matter was called on Today, Akponimisingha informed the court that the matter was slated for the defendants to open their defence and that he was ready to proceed, and drew the attention of the court to two motions filed on behalf of the defendants.

He said, the first motion sought the leave of the court to appeal its ruling on their no-case submission and the second motion sought an order directing the registrar of the court to make available Exhibits N and O to the defendants, while, Akponimisingha, who informed the court that his attention was only drawn to the motions on Monday, said he was not opposing the first motion, seeking leave to appeal.

Justice Omotosho, who granted the motion seeking leave to appeal his ruling, adjourned the matter until March 19 for a hearing of all pending motions in the matter.