The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River has upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence of Professor Peter Ogban for manipulating and announcing falsified results in the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election, which favoured Senator President Godswill Akpabio.
The appellate court, in its ruling on Wednesday, affirmed the earlier judgment of the High Court in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, which found Ogban guilty of electoral fraud.
The court strongly condemned his actions, noting the gravity of his misconduct as a university professor entrusted with the integrity of the electoral process.
Ogban, a Professor of Soil Physics at the University of Calabar, served as the returning officer in the said election.
He was prosecuted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after investigations revealed he altered election results to favour the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Ogban was convicted of manipulating results to boost Akpabio’s votes against his opponent, Christopher Ekpenyong of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Akpabio has since denied any involvement in the electoral fraud.
Trouble began for the convict when the then serving Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Mike Igini, opened investigation and prosecution of two university professors—Peter Ogban and Ignatius Uduk—for their roles in manipulating and announcing fraudulent election results.
It eventually culminated in the conviction of Ogban by the High Court , a sentence now affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
Uduk, the other investigated Professor from the University of Uyo, was in February sentenced an Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo, to three years in prison and fined N100,000 fine for perjury and publishing false election results during the 2019 general elections.
He was found guilty of announcing and publishing fabricated results in the Essien Udim State Constituency election, where he served as the returning officer.
The Professor had pleaded not guilty to the three charges brought against him by INEC.
AKPABIO’S CONTROVERSIAL ROAD TO THE SENATE
Akpabio’s rise to becoming Senate President has always been enmeshed in controversy.
He survived after the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja that reversed a lower court and sacked him as its candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial seat election, was in turn overturned controversially by the Supreme Court, which now declared Akpabio the validly nominated candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former Governor of Akwa-Ibom State and ex-Minister of Niger Delta Affairs thus displaced Udom Ekpoudom, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, that the appellate court had on 14th November 2022 ruled and ordered INEC to recognise as the authentic candidate of the party.
But the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, was part of the five-member Supreme Court that held that the Federal High Court (approving Akpabio) and the Court of Appeal (rejecting him) were wrong to have assumed jurisdiction in the suit because the issue of candidate nomination rested squarely with political parties.
The Supreme Court judgement gave a fatal blow to the Court of Appeal that had on 14th November 2022 set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court Abuja, and removed Mr Akpabio as the APC candidate for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District.
For the Appeal Court, since Akpabio contested the presidential primary of the APC, he could not participate in the valid primary of the party held on 27th May 2022 and monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which produced Udom Ekpoudom as the candidate.
The Appeal Court thus reversed the Federal High Court’s Justice Emeka Nwite that ordered INEC to reinstate Mr Akpabio as APC’s candidate, being the candidate nominated by the party in the second primary of 9 June 2022.
