The man designated the next vice-chancellor of the
University of Uyo, Prof. Enefiok Essien, 55, professor of commercial law and
the current dean, faculty of law, was indicted in 2005 for forgery and sexual
assault by the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal, Calabar, Cross River State,
handed down the indictment on Mr. Essien on July 14, 2005 while affirming the
judgment of the Federal High Court, Calabar, which nullified Uniuyo’s expulsion
of a female student, Linda Onyebuchi Essell, from the university over her
alleged involvement in examination malpractice.
Uniuyo didn’t appeal the judgment and Ms. Essell went
on to complete her first degree in law and graduated from the university.
Ms. Essell, as at the time she was accused of
examination malpractice in March, 1995, was in her second year, while Mr.
Essien was a senior lecturer then.
The fact of the case, according to court papers, is
that Ms. Essell submitted unstamped and unsigned answer booklet during her
examination in Constitutional Law (PUL 211), and for this reason the university
accused her of having pre-knowledge of the examination questions and of
bringing pre-written examination answers into the examination hall.
She was eventually expelled from the university,
although she pleaded that she was innocent of the allegations “I did not even
notice (that the answer script was unstamped and unsigned). I explained that I
was thoroughly searched by the invigilators like any other student before I
entered the examination hall and that
I was served with the answer script in
the examination hall. I did not go out of the hall throughout the duration of
the examination,” Ms. Essell had told the court in her affidavit.
Ms. Essell’s legal victory at both the federal high court
and the Court of Appeal was secured on the strength of her argument that she
wasn’t given fair hearing by the two panels – Examination Malpractice Panel and
the Senate Appeal Panel – set up by the school.
She supported her argument with an affidavit telling
how Mr. Essien, the man who several years later would be appointed Uniuyo’s
vice chancellor, manipulated the university system against her because she had
refused to accede to his love overtures.
Interestingly, it was Mr. Essien, who invigilated Ms.
Essell in the PUL 211examination. It was him who accused her of examination
malpractice. It was also him who chaired the Examination Malpractice Panel that
tried Ms. Estell.
The panel had two other lecturers – Goddy A. Umoh and
G. S. Akpan – drawn from the faculty of law as its members.
But Mr. Akpan “dropped out without any explanation and
no effort was made to replace him in the panel thereby reducing it to a two-man
panel instead of three as originally established,” the court said. “This gives
room to doubt the impartiality and independence of the panel as constituted.”
Mr. Umoh, besides being a member of the panel at the
faculty of law level, was also a member of the Senate Appeal Panel which was an
appellate panel that looked into the recommendations of the former.
The court held that that was a travesty of justice and
a serious breach of the rule of natural justice.
But Mr. Umoh said that he never sat on the Senate
Appeal Panel when Ms. Essell’s mater was brought before it.
“I am a member of the Senate Appeals Committee, but I
remember when this particular issue came up at the senate committee I declined
to be part of it since I was already involved in the panel that tried the case
at the faculty level,” he said.
The Court of Appeal faulted Essien’s chairmanship of
the panel and the failure of the vice chancellor to hear from Ms. Essell before
acting on the recommendations of Mr. Essien’s panel which proceedings the court
said wasn’t credible.
In fact, besides stating that the record of
proceedings of the panel was replete with many errors which amounted to “a
serious breach of the fundamental rights of the respondent,” the court held
that the proceedings of the panel must have been tampered with.
“Sometimes in April, 1995 around 1pm, Essien, after
our lectures on Contract of which he was the lecturer, summoned me to his
office. He told me that I had the last opportunity to redeem my career which
was billed for a doom by expulsion if only I could accede to his simple love
overtures which will take nothing from me,” Ms. Essell said in her affidavit.
When Ms. Essell refused Mr. Essien’s love overtures,
according to the court documents, he told her to prepare to appear with her
witnesses before the examination malpractice panel.
Ms. Essell also told the court in her affidavit that
Mr. Essien, as chairman of the Examination Malpractice Panel, forged and signed
the signature of another member of the panel, Mr. Akpan, as well as doctored
the proceedings of the panel.
The Court of Appeal in its judgment delivered by
Justice Dalhatu Adamu declared that Mr. Essell’s statements as contained in her
affidavit were “serious indictment on Essien”.
Since there was no counter-affidavit by Mr. Essien,
the court in its unanimous decision, held that Ms. Essell’s allegations “not
having been challenged, contradicted and controverted, must be deemed to be
true and correct.”
The court said, “It is surprising and strange that the
said Mr. Essien who was the subject of a vicious allegation refused to swear to
a counter-affidavit to challenge or contradict or controvert the allegations
levelled against him by the respondent”.
While dismissing the argument by Uniuyo’s lawyer, Mike
Akpabio, that the allegations against Mr. Essien were duly denied through an
affidavit deposed to by the deputy registrar of the university, Samson Brown,
the court held that Mr. Brown wasn’t a member of any of the university panels
that tried Ms. Essell for examination malpractice, and was therefore deposing
to matters outside his personal knowledge.
Prof. Essien also refused to speak on the issue when
he was contacted by telephone on Friday. He said he had nothing to say on the
matter.
However, the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Prof.
Kimse Okoko, confirmed that the institution’s governing council received a
petition against Mr. Essien after the selection process had ended.
Mr. Okoko said the allegations against Mr. Essien, as
contained in the court judgment were brought to the notice of the university
Governing Council, in which he (Okoko) is chairman, after the council had
concluded its work on the appointment of a new vice chancellor for the
university.
Mr. Okoko, whose Governing Council appointed and
announced Essien as vice chancellor-designate, said it was too late for the
council to open an investigation into the allegations against Mr. Essien.
“I still confronted him (Essien) when I got the
petition against him, and he told me that the whole court case took place when
he was away in the UK for his Ph.D,” Mr. Okoko
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