The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State capital, has upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence earlier slammed on Professor Peter Ogban, a University of Calabar (UNICAL) academic by a lower court for electoral fraud in the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election.
The alleged fraud was committed in favour of a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
In a landmark ruling delivered on Wednesday, the appellate court affirmed the earlier judgement of the Akwa Ibom High Court in Ikot Ekpene, which found Professor Ogban guilty of manipulating and announcing falsified election results.
Also, the court condemned Ogban’s conduct in strong terms, citing the grave implications of such acts by someone entrusted with safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process.
Professor Ogban, a renowned professor of Soil Physics, served as the returning officer for the 2019 senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-West. Investigations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) discovered that he carried out alterations on the final results to inflate Akpabio’s vote count to the detriment of his main opponent’s chances, Senator Christopher Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, Ekpenyong eventually won the election as Akpabio lost his re-election bid but got Ministerial appointment afterwards in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Akpabio has consistently denied any involvement in the electoral malpractice despite the court judgment.
The conviction followed a rigorous investigation led by the then Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Mike Igini. Under his leadership, the commission pursued the prosecution of two university professors, Ogban and Ignatius Uduk, for their roles in election result manipulation during the 2019 general election.
