JUST IN : Court jails Professor for announcing false election results in 2019

A High Court sitting in Akwa Ibom State on Thursday sentenced a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar, Peter Ogban, to three years in a correctional facility for fraudulent manipulation of election results.

Prof. Ogban was the returning officer in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-West in 2019.

The university Don was also accused of publishing and announcing false results in two Local Government Areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo.

He was prosecuted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the State High Court in Ikot Ekpene.

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On count one, the presiding judge, Augustine Odoko ordered him to pay a fine of N100,000 while on count two he was sentenced to three years imprisonment without an option of a fine.

The court found him guilty of altering the results of the election to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) against its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In a previous court session, Ogban had told the court how the results of the election were falsified to give the APC an unfair advantage over PDP.

Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, was the APC candidate in the election.

He was seeking a return to the Senate after he defected from the PDP.

The PDP’s candidate, Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor in Akwa Ibom State, defeated Mr Akpabio in the election which was gripped by pockets of violence.