The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar has upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence of Professor Peter Ogban, a former returning officer found guilty of manipulating election results in favour of Nigeria’s current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Ogban, a professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, was convicted in 2021 by a State High Court in Uyo for falsifying results from the 2019 National Assembly election in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District. The appellate court, on Wednesday, affirmed the verdict, describing his role in the electoral fraud as a gross betrayal of public trust, especially as a university professor.
During the 2019 election, Ogban was found to have tampered with results from Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas, adding thousands of false votes to benefit the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Akpabio, who had recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Despite the rigging attempt, Akpabio lost the election to PDP’s Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prosecuted Ogban in a case seen by many as a landmark effort to deter electoral malpractice in Nigeria. The court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Ogban had pleaded for leniency during sentencing, but Justice Augustine Odokwo ruled that the law must take its course, calling the matter “novel” in Nigeria’s judicial history.
Reacting to the appeal court’s ruling, a lawyer involved in the case said the judgment sends a strong message to academics and other electoral officers about the consequences of subverting democratic processes.
In a related development, another academic, Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo, was also jailed for three years for electoral fraud during the 2019 elections in Essien Udim State Constituency. Uduk was convicted of announcing and publishing false results and committing perjury to favour Nse Ntuen, an APC candidate and political ally of Akpabio.
Though Uduk was recently granted bail, the convictions of both professors mark a significant turn in Nigeria’s efforts to hold electoral officers accountable for malpractice.
Observers say the back-to-back convictions are a rare but welcome sign that the judiciary is taking a firm stand against electoral fraud, even as top politicians continue to benefit from such manipulations.
