A Forensic Analyst, Babagana Musa Mingali, told Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday that the mobile phone of suspended University of Calabar Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, was found to be empty during analysis.
Babagana, a Chief Superintendent of Police attached to the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), appeared as the second defense witness (DW2) after being subpoenaed in the case brought by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) against Prof. Ndifon.
Prof. Ndifon and his lawyer, Samuel Anyanwu, are facing a four-count charge involving allegations of sexual harassment, cybercrime, and obstruction of justice.
The ICPC has accused Prof. Ndifon of requesting a female diploma student, identified as TKJ, to send him explicit photos via WhatsApp while he served as Dean of the Faculty of Law. Additionally, the ICPC alleged that Anyanwu threatened a prosecution witness over the phone during the ongoing case against Ndifon.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges during their arraignment.
During Friday’s session, Babagana, led in evidence by defense counsel Joe Agi (SAN), disclosed his background in law enforcement, stating that he joined the Nigerian Police Force in 2010 and has been with the NSA since 2017.
He confirmed receiving a court letter dated July 5, 2024, accompanied by two mobile phones for forensic analysis—one belonging to Prof. Ndifon and the other to his co-defendant, Anyanwu.
Babagana said he conducted the analysis on the mobile phones at the NSA lab and wrote a report on them, dated August 8, 2024, presenting same to the court.
Justice Omotosho admitted both the letter and the Report as exhibits in the matter.
Babagana told the court that his office used highly professional tools in trying to extract documents from the phone, but could not.
“My lord, we used the Universal forensic extraction device, a Touch Tool and some accompanied cable 2070 and cable 100, including some external storage devices in trying to extract the data,” he said.
When asked if he saw any naked photographs, email trails, voice recording, text messages and Conversations, Babagana said, “I did not find any”
He claimed people from other agencies including the ICPC has are being posted to the NSA lab.
The analyst said No relevant information was found on the two phones between January 2021 up until January 2024 as the WhatsApp applications were out of date.
According to him, there was need to return them to the owners to update it so as to achieve the desired result.
During Cross-examination by ICPC’s counsel, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, Babagana said he has actively practiced forensic analysis for about five years.
He insisted that ICPC staff were posted to their lab though he did not their posting letter as evidence to back up his claim.
He said he knew the Nigerian Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the ICPC had forensic labs but said he was yet to see that of the ICPC.
Babagana however admitted that the same device (Touch Tool) used by his office, was also used by the ICPC in generating Exhibit H, which are the images from the mobile phone belonging to the professor adding that the other forensic labs can do same thing his office does.
The analyst also admitted that it would be possible to find something in the phones of the WhatsApp is updated.
After cross-examination, Justice James Omotosho adjourned till April 3 for continuation of defense.