High court sitting in Akwa Ibom State has sentenced a Professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, Peter Ogban, to three years in prison for fraudulent manipulation of election results for Mr. Godwswill Akpabio.
Akpabio lost his bid to return to the Senate after his defection from the PDP to APC before he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
Ogban, was the returning officer in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-West in 2019.
He was accused of publishing and announcing false results in two Local Government Areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo, prosecuted at a State High Court in Ikot Ekpene by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court found him guilty of altering the results of the election to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) against its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ogban had earlier told the court how the results of the election were falsified to give the APC an unfair advantage over PDP.
