Professor Peter Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar has been sentenced to three years in prison by High Court in Akwa Ibom state for manipulation election results.
Ogban was the collation/returning officer for Akwa Ibom North-West National Assembly election
He was prosecuted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He was arraigned on in November on two counts of manipulation and falsification of results before a State High Court in Ikot Ekpene Division by INEC.
The don was arraigned for allegedly manipulating the scores of two political parties, as well as falsifying and announcing fake results in Etim Ekpo and Oruk Anam Local Government Areas of the state.
According to INEC, the offences are punishable under Sections 1 and 123, Subsection 4 of the Electoral Act, as amended.
During a cross section in January by the prosecuting counsel, the court discovered that some 5,000 fake votes were added to the APC’s score in Oruk Anam, in the election
The professor also admitted he and the PDP agent signed the result sheet but denied manipulating the result.
“I did not extract information from exhibit 2 before filling exhibit 3. I filled exhibit 3 from what was read out to me by the local government area returning officer,” he said.
The court, however, found him guilty of altering results of the election to favour the APC against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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.
Ekpenyong defeated Akpabio in the election
