Professor Peter Ogban, a soil scientist and lecturer at the University of Calabar, has been jailed for three years by a high court sitting in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, after he was found guilty of of tampering with the election result of Northwest Senatorial District of the state in favour of the All Progressives Congress during the 2019 general election. He acted as the collation/returning officer during the election.
We commend INEC for successfully and diligently prosecuting the professor whose behaviour contradicts the dignity and honour that ought to go with such high academic achievements and position of influence on younger students. He dragged in the mud the letters in the series of his acquired certificates that describe him as ‘worthy in character and learning”.
However, with a series of elections since INEC brought in the professors, Nigeria has had the most litigious elections possibly in the history of democracy. Some election results they collated have been nullified by tribunals, and even when appeals have gone up to the Supreme Court, the decisions of the courts in most of the cases have left Nigerians and the global community wondering about the voices of the people in Nigerian elections.
The conviction of the professor is however telling of our electoral system. The manipulations he did to the results is the greatest crime in a democracy. It is a shame that after over 60 years, Nigeria still cannot boast of fairly credible electoral processes