The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, on Wednesday upheld the earlier conviction and three-year prison sentence of Professor Peter Ogban, for committing electoral fraud during the senatorial election held in 2019.
Ogban, a professor of soil physics at the University of Calabar, was said to have committed the electoral fraud during the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial election.
Delivering its judgment on Wednesday, the appellate court affirmed the decision of the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Ikot Ekpene, which had earlier found Ogban guilty of manipulating election results in favour of Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs and current President of the Nigeria Senate.
The court condemned Ogban’s conduct, describing it as a betrayal of public trust with far-reaching consequences for the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Ogban, who served as the Returning Officer for the election, was found to have altered the final vote count to inflate Akpabio’s numbers and suppress the votes of his main challenger, Christopher Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Despite the manipulation, Akpabio lost the election to Ekpenyong.
Investigations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under the leadership of Mike Igini, then resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom, led to Ogban’s prosecution alongside another academic, Ignatius Uduk.
INEC said both men played critical roles in falsifying election results during the 2019 general election.
Akpabio has repeatedly denied any involvement in the electoral malpractice.
In a related development, in February 2024, the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo sentenced Uduk, a professor at the University of Uyo, to three years in prison for perjury and announcing false results during the Essien Udim state constituency election in 2019.
The court also fined Uduk N100,000.
His trial, which began in December 2020, faced several delays — including his collapse during cross-examination and a failed attempt to disqualify the presiding judge over alleged bias.
Despite losing his 2019 re-election bid, Akpabio returned to the senate in 2023 and now serves as senate president.
(vitalnewsngr.com)
