By Bukola Kayode
Peter Ogban, the disgraced Nigerian professor sentenced to three years in jail for rigging the 2019 senatorial election in favour of theSenate President, Senator Godwill Akpabio, has been walking free instead of serving out his jail term.
According to Premium Times the university lecturer had not served a day of his sentence and has been enjoying freedom.
Akpabio whose election into the Senate and eventual emergence as Senate President has remained a subject of controversy is a strong ally of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. His unapologetic allegiance to the President has earned the National Assembly the rubber stamp tag.
The Court of Appeal, Calabar, on 30 April, upheld the lower court conviction and the three-year jail term for Mr Ogban, a professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar and a returning officer in the 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom North-West District.
A State High Court in Uyo, on 25 March 2021, found Mr Ogban guilty of announcing fake election results in two local government areas—Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo—in Mr Akpabio’s favour and sentenced him to jail the same day.
Premium Times reports that Mr Ogban was taken from the courtroom in Uyo to a federal prison in Ikot Ekpene, still in Akwa Ibom, to serve his prison term.
The paper further reports that, the professor spent only about four months in prison as another judge, Pius Idiong of the State High Court, Ikot Ekpene, granted him bail on 12 July 2021, despite the opposition from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which prosecuted the professor.
Premium Times quoted a lawyer who is knowledgeable about the case, saying on Monday that the professor was not at the Court of Appeal courtroom when the judgement was delivered.
“The officials of the Nigerian prisons ought to have made sure Prof Ogban was present in the courtroom during that judgement, and they should have taken him straight to Ikot Ekpene prisons immediately after the judgement,” he said.
A lawyer, identified by Truecaller App as Eddy, a member of the Kanu G. Agabi & Associates, admitted to Premium Times on Monday that the convicted professor ought to be in jail but said she did not know his exact location “at the moment.”
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