TheHILL |JUDICIARY | Posted by Henshaw NYONG. March 25, 2021.
It was pain and anguish for the University of Uyo Professor of Soil Science, Peter Ogban, as he was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by the Akwa Ibom State High Court for forging and announcing fake results for the 2019 Akwa Ibom North West senatorial District election.
The Court admited that the University Don added a total of Five Thousand (5000) votes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and at the same time reducing same votes for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Recall that the PDP candidate, Obong Chris Ekpenyong, scored a total of 134,717 votes to beat the former senator, now Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who had 83,820 votes, according to the result released by INEC.
With the result, Akpabio, 58, lost his bid to return to the Senate for a second term to the 66 years old Ekpenyong.
The Senatorial District has a total of 108 Registration Areas (RAs) and 1124 polling units, and covers 10 local government areas which comprise Abak, Essien, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ikono, Ikot Ekpene, Ini, Obot, Oruk Anam and Ukanafun.
The current Senator of the District, Ekpenyong in an interview he granted to newsmen had said Akpabio approached the tribunal with “pseudo results which he actually cooked from his house, a total of 61,229 votes” to upturn his “victory.”
Ogban in a ruling today, was found guilty of changing the outcome of the Akpabio/Ekpenyong election by reducing Ekpenyong’s 5,000 votes and increasing that of Akpabio by the same margin without altering the overall total valid votes cast to avoid detection.
Efforts to get the reactions of the two political titans were unsuccessful. While Senator Ekpenyong’s aide who gave himself as Nsikak on Thursday at 1:35pm, promised to get back to TheHILL, Chief Akpabio’s Media aide did not return his calls.
