₦airaland Forum

Professor convicted for rigging election for Akpabio walks free instead of serving jail term

Many Nigerians, including journalists, erroneously think Mr Ogban has served or is still serving his jail term.

by Chinagorom Ugwu


Peter Ogban, the disgraced Nigerian professor convicted and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for rigging a 2019 senatorial election for the country’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has been walking free instead of serving his jail term, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.

Many Nigerians, including journalists, erroneously think Mr Ogban has served or is still serving his jail term.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a strong ally of President Bola Tinubu.

The Court of Appeal, Calabar, on 30 April, upheld the lower court conviction and the three-year jail term for Mr Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar and a returning officer in the 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom North-West District.

A State High Court in Uyo, on 25 March 2021, found Mr Ogban guilty of announcing fake election results in two local government areas—Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo—in Mr Akpabio’s favour and sentenced him to jail the same day.

Mr Ogban was taken from the courtroom in Uyo to a federal prison in Ikot Ekpene, still in Akwa Ibom, to serve his prison term.


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However, the professor spent only about four months in prison as another judge, Pius Idiong of the State High Court, Ikot Ekpene, granted him bail on 12 July 2021, despite the opposition from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which prosecuted the professor.

The professor was freed on bail while pursuing his appeal against his conviction and sentence by the lower court.

The Court of Appeal judgement, which upheld Mr Ogban’s conviction and jail term, was delivered virtually.

A lawyer knowledgeable about the case told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that the professor was not at the Court of Appeal courtroom when the judgement was delivered.

“The officials of the Nigerian prisons ought to have made sure Prof Ogban was present in the courtroom during that judgement, and they should have taken him straight to Ikot Ekpene prisons immediately after the judgement,” he said.

A lawyer, identified by Truecaller App as Eddy, a member of the Kanu G. Agabi & Associates, admitted to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that the convicted professor ought to be in jail but said she did not know his exact location “at the moment.”

Richard Metong, the spokesperson of the Nigeria Correctional Service in Akwa Ibom, said he did not know if Mr Ogban was in any of the prison facilities in Akwa Ibom. He asked our reporter to give him time to run a check, but did not call back or respond to further calls from our reporter.

How jailed professor got his ‘freedom’
Clement Onwuenwunor was the INEC lawyer during the hearing of Mr Ogban’s bail application, while Kanu Agabi, SAN, represented the professor.

Mr Agabi claimed Mr Ogban had high blood pressure and tuberculosis.

According to a court document seen by PREMIUM TIMES, he pleaded with the court to grant his client bail because of ill health, while he was about to go to the Court of Appeal to challenge his conviction and sentence.

He argued that the professor may suffer injustice if he remained in prison and the Court of Appeal eventually reduced his sentence, gave him an option of a fine, or discharged and acquitted him, an argument Mr Idiong upheld in his ruling on the bail application.

According to the court document, the INEC lawyer, Mr Onwuenwunor, in his argument, said the professor’s claim that he was ill, neither qualified for an exceptional circumstance nor an unusual reason for him to be granted bail. He said what the Supreme Court has qualified as such exceptional circumstance or unusual reason is where the convict’s ailment cannot be treated in the prison and the prison authorities are unable to arrange for such treatment outside the prison facility.

Mr Idiong said in his ruling, “The Court agrees with the senior learned counsel (Agabi) that it is a possibility that the appeal may be allowed and the applicant (Ogban) discharged and acquitted.

“It is also possible that the sentence imposed on the applicant by the trial court may, at the end of the day, be reduced. At the end, the appellate court may also resolve to give the applicant an option of a fine in count 2 of the charge. And above all, the applicant may be cautioned and discharged by the appellate court.”

In addition, the judge ruled that “This court holds the view that although the applicant’s so-called health conditions and medical report cannot constitute such an exceptional circumstance, he has nonetheless made out a case to warrant being granted a temporary reprieve.”

According to a court document seen by our reporter, Mr Agabi is going to the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s judgement affirming Mr Ogban’s conviction and sentence for election fraud.


Another professor jailed for election fraud, but also enjoying freedom

Another professor, Ignatius Uduk, was recently jailed by a State High Court in Uyo for election fraud.

Mr Uduk, a professor of Human Kinetics in the Department of Physical and Health Education at the University of Uyo, was jailed for three years.

INEC prosecuted him on three charges: announcement of false election results, publication of false results, and perjury during the 2019 general elections in Essien Udim State Constituency, where he served as INEC’s collation and returning officer.

The professor falsified the election results to the advantage of the APC candidate, Nse Ntuen, who was then an ally of Mr Akpabio.

However, Mr Uduk was recently granted bail by a State High Court in Uyo.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/793834-professor-convicted-for-rigging-election-for-akpabio-walks-free-instead-of-serving-jail-term.html

Lawless country

Lol, sensationalism. How can Akpabio win an election where he was minister of Niger Delta?
Akpabio was senator from 2015 to 2019, he was opposition leader if i remember well. That was the period he challenged SP Saraki about seat change and later apologized. He defected to APC and lost his election. PMB made him minister during this period. Most people remember "off the mic" incident when he came to the chambers as a minister. Many gullible people dey naija sha.

Let's make sense of this.

INEC is prosecuting the professor for announcing fake results in support of Akpabio. Results which gave Akpabio victory and a senate seat. Yet the same INEC gave Akpabio a certificate of return. How does this make sense? Why was Akpabio's election not invalidated?

Secondly, do not pity any professor or indeed any member of ASUU. They are behind every rigging of elections in Nigeria. I have personally witnessed these professors and university staff change the results of a governorship election. This happened in the head collation centre located in a federal university. They were so blatant and unafraid.

Despite the presented evidence of rigging and massive allocations of votes, the supreme court still gave the sitting governor the election. That's when I gave up on our judiciary.

A country where professors rig elections for touts then go on 13months strike to demand better wages.

The joke's on them.

Nigeria judiciary is a joke 🤡 na

Nigeria is long gone, no remedy..

Pray, work smart and make money, you can never think about this entity called Nigeria

Maybe he was on parole

Apc and their supporters are more evïł than the zoo itself.

Chaiiii

Nigeria is a crime scene

They will still defend this....

Zombie$

Banana Replublic

Dear PBAT, you're a great man, what you cannot do in Nigeria does not exist!!!

Islie:
Professor convicted for rigging election for Akpabio walks free instead of serving jail term

Many Nigerians, including journalists, erroneously think Mr Ogban has served or is still serving his jail term.




https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/793834-professor-convicted-for-rigging-election-for-akpabio-walks-free-instead-of-serving-jail-term.html

Nlfpmod

Which way Nigeria

Image123:
Lol, sensationalism. How can Akpabio win an election where he was minister of Niger Delta?

it is not one election that put him in that sit

Only in Nigeria!

second chance

See how our elites are uniting to destroy value and cheat common man in Nigeria.

The judiciary has finished us

What does the nation expects when hardened criminals forced themselves into govt through unimaginable criminal ways possible?

As long as he did the rigging for APC he's covered and cleared of any wrong doing.

One party system in Nigeria.

Belle-face professors.

Animal farm. His sin covered by the power of APC.

That is Nigeria for you

I wasn't surprised. This is Nigeria.

Were you expecting him to go to jail when the person he rigged the election for is a senate president?

I pity who still have hope in this government

Nigeria for you

UpaIweka:
Funny headline

Those that rigged the elecrion for Obasanjo, Yardua, Ebele Jonathan, Peter Obi etc did they not walk free ?

Or which of them are in jail at any time in the history of Nigeria ?

One Yaba left patient on the loose.

Banana Republic