Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, says
Peter Ogban, the professor jailed for manipulating election result in Akwa Ibom
state, never worked for him.
Reacting to claims associating him with Ogban, Akpabio said
he was rather a victim of the fraud committed by the professor in the 2019 Akwa
Ibom north-west senatorial election.
A high court in Akwa Ibom state had sentenced Ogban from the
University of Calabar to three years in prison after he was found guilty of
manipulating the election result.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had
accused him of rigging the poll as the returning officer to favour the All
Progressives Congress (APC) against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
But in a statement on Saturday, Akpabio, who was the APC
candidate in the election, accused INEC of twisting the case, saying nothing
could be further from the truth regarding their submission.
The statement issued by Aniete Ekong, his spokesman, read:
“Contrarily, Senator Akpabio was a victim of the fraudulent manipulation of the
election of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District held on 23rd February
2019. He is vindicated that the perpetrators of the electoral fraud are being
brought to justice. At last, the chickens are coming home to roost.
“It could be recalled that Sen. Godswill Akpabio had
approached the National Assembly Election Tribunal to challenge the outcome of
the February 23, 2019 Senatorial District elections which held in Akwa Ibom
North-West Senatorial District.
“Amongst those who
were sued was the Returning Officer of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial
District, Professor Ogban who alongside the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr
Mike Igini, hijacked the Election Results from the Senatorial District
Collation Headquarters, Ikot Ekpene to another Senatorial District at the INEC
office in Uyo, where the collated votes of Senator Godswill Akpabio were
maliciously and arbitrarily cancelled by the Resident Electoral Commissioner-
Mike Igini and Prof Ogban.
“The question is: who was the beneficiary of the electoral
fraud and manipulation in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District? Certainly,
not Senator Akpabio, which was why he challenged the outcome of the election up
to the Court of Appeal which upheld his appeal and ordered a rerun election
with very strong condemnation of the activities of the Returning Officer and
INEC.
“How then could the same man whose actions Senator Akpabio
was dissatisfied with and challenged in Court be said to have rigged the
election for Senator Akpabio? “For the avoidance of doubt Prof Ogban never
announced Senator Akpabio as the winner of any election. Instead he cancelled
his lawful votes and announced Senator Akpabio’s opponent as the winner of the
manipulated election.
“It is the height of mischief for anyone to say that a man
who arbitrarily cancelled lawfully collated votes of the APC and announced PDP
winner of the election was working for Sen. Akpabio.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com