• Jailed INEC official didn’t rig for Akpabio, says aide
The Court of Appeal in Calabar has upheld the conviction of Peter Ogban, a professor jailed in 2021 for rigging the Akwa Ibom North-West District senatorial election in 2019.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio was a candidate at the election on the the All Progressives Congress (APC), platform but lost before he contested again in 2023 and won.
He was seeking a return to the Senate after he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ogban, a professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar and a Returning Officer in the 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom North-West District, was jailed for three years by a State High Court in Uyo for announcing fake election results in two local government areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo.
Ogban had told the trial court in Uyo how the election results were falsified to give one party an unfair advantage over the others.
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Some 5,000 fake votes were said to have been added to the APC score in Oruk Anam in the election.
But the Special Assistant to the Senate President on Media, Anietie Ekong, refuted claims that the jailed RO rigged elections in his favour of Akpabio.
Akpabio, according to statement by Ekong, in Abuja, did not directly or indirectly benefit from the actions of Ogban.
Ekong said: “For the umpteenth time, just like I did when Senator Godswill Akpabio was the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, the claim that the jailed INEC Electoral Officer, Prof. Peter Ogban, was convicted for rigging election in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is unfounded, spurious, malicious and intended to tarnish the image of the President of the Senate”
The PDP candidate, Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, defeated Akpabio in the election, which was gripped by pockets of violence.
INEC prosecuted Ogban in the landmark case.
Before his sentencing, the professor pleaded for mercy from the judge, Augustine Odokwo.
Justice Odokwo, who described the case as novel, told the lecturer that there was not much he could do other than let the law take its course.
He said the prosecution was able to prove its case against Ogban, beyond any reasonable doubt.