The Court of Appeal in Calabar, Cross River State, on Wednesday, upheld the judgement by an Akwa-Ibom State High Court in Uyo, which sentenced a professor, Peter Ogban, to three years in jail in 2021, for election fraud.

The professor of soil science at the University of Calabar who was a returning officer in the 2019 elections in Akwa Ibom North-West District, was convicted for rigging a senatorial election for the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Mr Ogban was found guilty of announcing fake election results in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas in favour of Mr Akpabio, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party at the time.

After losing the election, Mr Akpabio defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress under which he re-contested and won in 2023 before his emergence as Senate president. But Mr Akpabio had stated that the don never worked in his favour, stating that instead he was a victim of the fraud he perpetrated in the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial poll.

The judge while upholding the trial court’s judgement was said to have expressed disappointment at his involvement in falsifying poll results to give Mr Akpabio an unfair advantage despite being a university professor.

Before his sentencing by the judge at the lower court, Augustine Odokwo, explained how fake 5,000 votes were added to the actual number of votes declared in Oruk Anam.