*Says Election Manipulation Was Deliberate
The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar has affirmed the conviction of Professor Peter Ogban, who was jailed for manipulating election results in favour of Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during the 2019 general elections.
The court, in a judgement delivered by Justice Joseph Oyewole, upheld the three-year sentence imposed by the Akwa Ibom State High Court and berated the disgraced academic, stating emphatically that, “The rank of university professor is not one easily attainable and is certainly not a rank attained by fools.”
Professor Ogban, a soil science lecturer at the University of Uyo, was found guilty of falsifying election results in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas to benefit Mr. Akpabio, who was then seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He ultimately lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chris Ekpenyong.
Despite his conviction, Mr. Ogban remains free—a development critics attribute to Nigeria’s broken criminal justice system.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which prosecuted the professor, presented two collation officers as witnesses. They testified that the results they submitted were different from the ones Ogban published. Justice Oyewole, in backing the trial court’s decision, said the manipulation was deliberate and consistent.
Rejecting the professor’s defence that he relied on “verbal pronouncements” rather than written figures, the court noted that his conduct betrayed the expectations of his academic rank.
Justice Peter Obiorah, another member of the Appeal Court panel, described Ogban’s actions as a “betrayal of public trust”, declaring that he “does not deserve any pity or mercy.” Obiorah warned that the ruling should serve as a deterrent to others in the electoral process.
Ogban’s appeal, anchored on claims of denial of fair hearing and other procedural grounds, was unanimously dismissed by the panel, which ruled that he was given every opportunity to defend himself.
The judgement, certified on May 27, was first delivered on April 30
