Fact check: Ex-minister lies about professor jailed for rigging election for him

Claim

Godswill Akpabio, the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for the 2023 election in Akwa Ibom North-West District, flagged off his campaign on Wednesday with a lie that Peter Ogban, a professor jailed over 2019 election fraud in the state was used to “rob him” of “victory”.

Mr Ogban, a professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, was the returning officer in the district election in 2019.

“You people voted overwhelmingly for me, but some people colluded to rob me of my victory. The professor who was used to rob me of that victory in 2019 is now in jail,” Mr Akpabio said at a rally in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

This is not the first time Mr Akpabio would be making such a false claim even when the facts – testimonies and evidence in court – clearly showed that the disgraced professor falsified some results of the 2019 election in the Akwa Ibom North-West District in Mr Akpabio’s favour.

Shortly after a State High Court in Uyo, on 25 March, 2021, convicted and sentenced Mr Ogban to three years imprisonment and a fine of N100, 000 for fraudulent manipulation of the 2019 election results, and publishing and announcing of false results, Mr Akpabio claimed he was a victim of the election fraud and that he had been vindicated by the judgment.

“He (Akpabio) is vindicated that the perpetrators of the electoral fraud are being brought to justice, at last the chickens are coming home to roost,” Anietie Ekong, who was a spokesperson then to Mr Akpabio, said in a statement in Abuja.

Mr Akpabio was the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, an appointment he got as some kind of compensation from President Muhammadu Buhari after he lost the 2019 senatorial election.

Mr Ekong said the jailed professor “joined the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, to deny him (Akpabio) victory in the election”.

“In that election, Akpabio’s votes totaling about 61,329 scored at his home Local Government Area – Essien Udim, having been collated, were not announced by Ogban in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

“Rather, Ogban who served as the Senatorial District Returning Officer joined the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Uyo where the votes and scores of Akpabio were cancelled in various polling units and collation centers of various LGAs constituting Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.

“This was including 61,329 votes of his home LGA,” Mr Ekong said.

“Mr Ogban was not working for Mr Akpabio who had challenged the election result at the tribunal”, Mr Ekong said.

Continuing, Mr Ekong said: “For the avoidance of doubt Ogban never announced Akpabio as the winner of any election, instead he cancelled his lawful votes and announced his opponent as the winner of the manipulated election.

“It is the height of mischief for anyone to say that a man who arbitrarily cancelled lawfully collated votes of the APC and announced PDP winner of the election was working for Akpabio.

“In due time, we believe all the conspirators will be brought to justice as Ogban, either through the judiciary or divine intervention.”

Evidence

Mr Akpabio, who was seeking a second term in the Nigerian Senate, was the APC candidate for the 2019 senatorial election in the Akwa Ibom North-west District. He first contested the district election and won in 2015 as a PDP candidate before he defected to the APC in 2018.

The PDP candidate, Christopher Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, was Mr Akpabio’s major rival in the 2019 senatorial election.

As previously reported by PREMIUM TIMES, before his conviction and sentencing, Mr Ogban, in one of the court sessions, clearly told the court how the results of the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-west District election were falsified in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas to give the APC an unfair advantage over its main rival, the PDP.

For instance, 5,000 fake votes were added to the APC’s score in Oruk Anam Local Government Area in the election.

Mr Ogban, during cross examination by the prosecution counsel, admitted that the votes he entered for both APC and the PDP in the two local government areas were not taken from results collated at the constituency.

As his defence, Mr Ogban said the votes he entered were “read out” to him by the local government areas returning officers.

However, two witnesses of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – John Enoidem and Itemobong Ekaidem – contradicted the professor’s claim.

The witnesses, who are university lecturers, were collation officers in the two local government areas. They told the court that what Mr Ogban entered as scores for APC and PDP were not what they presented to him.

The Guardian newspaper captured the court session where the two INEC witnesses were cross examined.

“In their testimonies, they said the results they collated at the council level, which were presented to Ogban, differed from the results he finally declared.

“For the Oruk Anam Council result, Enoidem noted that while his result showed that the APC scored 10,534 votes and the PDP 25,123 votes, the accused declared that the APC polled 15,534, while PDP got 20,123 votes.

“He, thereby, reduced PDP’s votes by 5,000 and increased APC score by the same number of ballots. Ekaidem added that while the results for Etim Ekpo Council showed that APC scored 2,671 votes and PDP got 6,603, the result Ogban finally declared showed that APC scored 5,671 votes compared to PDP’s 3,306, amounting to a difference of 3,000 in favour of the former,” the paper reported.

During the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West District election, Mr Akpabio’s challenger, Mr Ekpenyong of the PDP, was leading with a wide margin until the APC scrambled for “suspicious” votes which they could use to change the election course.

INEC, at some point, suspended the announcement of the election results in Essien Udim Local Government Area where Mr Akpabio hails from.

“If we accept the results from the local government area, Akpabio’s votes will overshoot that of Chris Ekpenyong,” an INEC official had told PREMIUM TIMES.

“There are issues in the results which we are yet to be resolved,” the official had said.

The elections in the area were marred by pockets of violence.

“I have records of presiding officers who were speaking to me in low tones because of where they were and what was going on. God gave the returning officer wisdom, and today he is alive,” the then Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Igini had said, when he told journalists and representatives of political parties why the commission could not announce the results from Essien Udim.

INEC later conducted a rerun election in Essien Udim, as ordered by the Court of Appeal, Calabar, following a suit filed by Mr Akpabio.

But Mr Akpabio backed out of the election, leaving the PDP to win easily, even though the election was still characterised by violence, including INEC officials being held hostage in Mr Akpabio’s ward.

What the disgraced professor said

Before he received his jail sentence, Mr Ogban, while begging the judge, Augustine Odokwo, to have mercy on him, said his case was an “eye-opener”.

“This is an eye-opener for anyone who participated in local, state or national activities to do so with dexterity and not take anything for granted to avoid an innocent person being embarrassed,” he said to the judge.

“I should be pardoned for the inability to do this which is why I am here today. I plead that you grant me 100 per cent mercy and allow me to go and continue with my responsibilities.

“If I lose my source of income, it means all of my dependents I have mentioned will suffer, especially the condition of my aged mother,” the professor said in court.

Conclusion

Mr Akpabio lied that the jailed professor, Mr Ogban, rigged the 2019 senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-west District for the PDP candidate; available evidence showed that he rigged the election for Mr Akpabio.