Court Affirms Conviction of Professor for Rigging Election for Akpabio
The Court of Appeal in Calabar has upheld the conviction of Professor Peter Ogban, who was jailed in 2021 for rigging a senatorial election in 2019 for Godswill Akpabio, a senator from Akwa Ibom State and current president of the Nigerian Senate. Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar and a returning officer in the Akwa Ibom North-West District, was initially sentenced by a State High Court in Uyo to three years in prison for announcing fake election results in two local government areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo – in Akpabio’s favor. The appellate court affirmed both the conviction and the three-year jail term, expressing strong disapproval of Ogban's role as a university professor in the fraudulent manipulation of election results.
The case revealed that approximately 5,000 fake votes were added to the APC’s score in Oruk Anam to give the party an unfair advantage over its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At the time of the election, Akpabio was seeking a return to the Senate after defecting from the PDP. Ultimately, the PDP candidate, Chris Ekpenyong, defeated Akpabio in an election marked by violence. INEC prosecuted Ogban in what became a landmark case.
Before his initial sentencing, Ogban pleaded for mercy, but Justice Augustine Odokwo emphasized that the law must take its course, noting that the prosecution had proven its case beyond any reasonable doubt. Akpabio has maintained that he had no hand in the alleged manipulation of the election.
Ogban's case is not an isolated incident. Professor Ignatius Uduk, a professor of Human Kinetics at the University of Uyo, was also jailed for three years for election fraud. Uduk was convicted of falsifying election results in the 2019 Essien Udim State Constituency election, again to the advantage of an APC candidate, Nse Ntuen, who was an ally of Akpabio. While Uduk was later granted bail, his conviction, alongside Ogban's, underscores the ongoing efforts to combat electoral malpractice within Nigeria’s academic and political spheres.
