The Peoples Democratic Party, on Thursday, commended the judiciary for its courage to stand on the side of the people to jail a returning officer who was accused of rigging during the 2019 general elections. The PDP, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan expressed the hope that the long arm of the law would soon catch up with other corrupt returning officers.
The Akwa Ibom State High Court 2 sitting in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area had sentenced one Prof Peter Ogban of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, to three years imprisonment for the electoral fraud he committed during the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial elections in the state. Ogban, a Professor of Soil Physics and Conservation, who acted as the Collation/Returning Officer during the National Assembly election, stood trial on two counts of manipulating and falsifying scores of election results in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas in favour of the APC.
In his judgment last Thursday, Justice Augustine Odokwo said it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was guilty of the charges and accordingly sentenced him to three years imprisonment and a fine of N100, 000 for the two counts, respectively. Reacting to the development via a statement issued on Friday in Abuja and titled ‘PDP’s electoral fraud: Court has vindicated APC, Akpabio,’ the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena said the Peoples Democratic Party elements who made use of the UNICAL professor to rig out Akpabio as APC’s candidate at the poll should now “burry their heads in shame.”
If not for APC’s rigging, Nigeria
would not be in a sorry state – PDP
“The PDP asserts that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with other corrupt returning officers, including some shameless professors who were heavily bribed and compromised by the APC to alter results and rig it into power at various levels in the 2019 general elections. “It is shameful that individuals who had attained the peak of enviable career in the academia could submit themselves as willing tools in the hands of a fraudulent, debased and manipulative political party, like the APC, to alter election results and subvert the collective will of the people in the 2019 elections.
“Such individuals can now see the deplorable situation of economic depression, excruciating hardship, terrorism, killings, kidnapping, social and infrastructural decay, which their fraudulent and unpatriotic action has plunged our nation. “If these unpatriotic elements had not manipulated our electoral process in favour of APC and allowed the will of the people to prevail, our nation would not have found herself in this sorry state.
“Our party holds that this courageous judgment would stand as a deterrent to the compromised returning officers and a signal to the APC that result alterations will have no space in the 2023 general election. “Ahead of the off season elections as well as the 2023 general elections, the PDP urges Nigerians and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remain vigilant as more effort is being made to bring other compromised electoral officers, who brought the present misfortune on our nation, to book”.
PDP used Ogban to manipulate result, his prosecution vindicates us – APC
It is on record that during the election, the minister asked INEC to redeploy the then Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State when he (Akpabio) noticed that the PDP was using some officials of the electoral umpire against him. “In their desperation in a continuing campaign of calumny against Senator Akpabio, the INEC in Akwa Ibom State twisted the context of the judgment and maliciously claimed that the election was rigged in favour of Senator Akpabio. “Nothing could be further from the truth.
The facts of the case put a lie to this assertion. “Contrarily, Senator Akpabio was a victim of the fraudulent manipulation of the election of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District held on February 23 2019. “Professor Ogban was the Returning Officer who in a bizarre twist to manipulate the election and rig Senator Akpabio out, hijacked the electoral results of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District from Ikot Ekpene, the Senatorial District headquarters to Uyo where it was announced after cancellations of lawfully collated votes and against the dictates of the Electoral Act. “The question is: who was the beneficiary of the electoral fraud and manipulation in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District? The senatorial election was fraudulently postponed by the returning officer against the wish of the APC and its candidate, while all the complaints made by Akpabio and the ruling were not given attention.
APC as a party condemns the manipulative strategy being employed by the PDP and its agents, particularly in Akwa Ibom State, to discredit it and Akpabio as a result of the court’s judgment. Nigerians should disregard the alleged attempt by the PDP and its sponsored agents to “misinform the general public on the real issue, the interpretation of the court judgment and the integrity challenge bothering on the PDP.” “We celebrate the court’s pronouncement jailing one of the agents of the PDP used against our candidate (Akpabio) in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom north-west in 2019. We always believe that ‘if a lie goes for 20 years, the truth will meet it one day.’ This judgment is significant in the sense that others like Prof Ogban in the system should henceforth know that under the present Federal Government/APC’s administration, justice will always prevail.”
