The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, has upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence handed to Professor Peter Ogban over electoral malpractice during the 2019 National Assembly elections.
Professor Ogban, a lecturer in Soil Science at the University of Calabar and a returning officer in the election, was convicted in 2021 for falsifying election results in the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District to favour then-APC candidate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
An Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo had found him guilty of manipulating figures in favour of Akpabio by altering results from Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which prosecuted the case, alleged that Ogban added as many as 5,000 fictitious votes to the APC’s tally in Oruk Anam in a bid to influence the outcome.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Ogban approached the appellate court, seeking to overturn the conviction.
However, in its judgment on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and affirmed the lower court’s verdict.
The court expressed disappointment in the professor’s actions, noting that someone of his academic standing should have served as a custodian of integrity, not a perpetrator of electoral fraud.
Justice Augustine Odokwo, who originally sentenced Ogban, had described the case as a “novel” one, noting that the prosecution presented compelling evidence that left no room for doubt.
