Court upholds jail term for professor who rigged election for Akpabio

The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar has upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence of Professor Peter Ogban, a Nigerian academic who falsified election results in favour of Senate President Godswill Akpabio during the 2019 general elections.

Professor Ogban, a lecturer in soil science at the University of Calabar, served as the returning officer for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district election. He was found guilty of electoral fraud after manipulating results to boost the chances of Akpabio, who was contesting the seat under the All Progressives Congress (APC) following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Despite the rigging attempt, Akpabio still lost the election to PDP’s Chris Ekpenyong.

In 2021, a High Court in Uyo convicted Ogban for tampering with results from Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas, where he inflated APC’s vote count by over 5,000. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prosecuted the case, and during the trial, the professor admitted to manipulating the figures to give the APC an unfair advantage.

The Court of Appeal, in affirming the lower court’s decision, condemned Ogban’s actions as particularly shameful, given his academic status. A lawyer involved in the case said the court emphasized that people in positions of trust, especially intellectuals, must not abuse their responsibilities during elections.

Another academic, Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo, was also convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for falsifying results in favour of an APC candidate linked to Akpabio. Though Uduk was later granted bail, his case highlighted a troubling trend.

Godswill Akpabio later return to the Senate in 2023, winning a fresh election and eventually emerged as Nigeria’s Senate President.