The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar has affirmed the conviction and sentencing of Professor Peter Ogban, who was imprisoned in 2021 for manipulating election results in favour of Godswill Akpabio during the 2019 senatorial race in Akwa Ibom State.
Professor Ogban, a lecturer at the University of Calabar and serving as a returning officer at the time, was found guilty of altering vote counts in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas to favour Akpabio, then a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The fraud took place in an election that Akpabio ultimately lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chris Ekpenyong.
Akpabio emerging Senate President
Despite the initial defeat, Mr Akpabio would later return to contest again in 2023 and secure a seat in the Senate, eventually becoming its president.
The appellate court, in its ruling on Wednesday, not only upheld the three-year sentence handed down by the State High Court in Uyo but also expressed disapproval of Professor Ogban’s conduct, especially given his position in academia.
During the original trial, Professor Ogban had admitted to inflating the APC’s vote count by approximately 5,000 in Oruk Anam. He had pleaded for leniency, but the trial judge, Justice Augustine Odokwo, emphasised the seriousness of the offence and ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led the prosecution in this landmark case aimed at holding electoral officers accountable.
Ogban is not the only academic recently convicted of electoral misconduct. Another university lecturer, Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo, was also sentenced to three years in prison for similar offences. He was convicted of fabricating and announcing false results during the 2019 elections in the Essien Udim State Constituency, allegedly in favour of an APC candidate allied with Akpabio.
Though convicted, Professor Uduk was later granted bail by a State High Court in Uyo.
