The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom state Tuesday arraigned Professor Peter Ogban before a High Court sitting at Ikot Ekpene over election fraud during the 2019 general elections.
Ogban, a professor of Soil Science, University of Uyo, who was the Returning Officer at Ikot Ekpene, was accused of trying to manipulate scores of two parties of the 2019 Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District election.
The court read that for fraudulently manipulated scores of two parties, the coalition/returning officer committed offense punishable by section 1,2,3 (1) of electoral act 2010 as amended.
Ogban, who was docked before trial Justice Justin D. Odokwo pleaded not guilty.
The defendant’s counsel, Anthony Ekpe prayed the court to grant his client bail.
Justice Odokwo admitted the defendant to bail to the tune of N300,000 with surety of like some, including his passport photographs.
The case was subsequently adjourned till December 15, 2020 , for full trial.
In a related development, a statement signed by the Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Odaro Aisien for the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Mike Igini, in Uyo, said Mr. Ogban “altered already-declared results at Polling Units and collated Ward results in Form EC8B delivered to him by Ward Collation Officers.”
Igini said Mr. Ogban’s colleague, Professor Ignatius Uduk, in the same university, ought to have been arraigned as well over election malpractice but that he was on the run as effort in trying to serve him court papers was abortive.
“He changed the outcome of the election by reducing the score of a leading candidate by a huge five thousand (5,000) votes and increasing the losing candidate’s score by the same margin without altering the overall total valid votes cast to avoid detection.
“Unfortunately for him, there is no perfect crime as the early information trigger tracking system of the Electoral Operation Support Centre (EOSC), fully activated throughout the period of the election, exposed him,” the commission said.
“Professor Ignatius Uduk, declared election results collated not by him, but by undisclosed individuals who only handed them to him to announce.
“He admitted to this fact in his own handwritten (not typed) statement that he earlier signed, even though he refused to come back to the commission’s office for further debriefing to ascertain who delivered the prepared election results to him,” INEC said.
