CSO faults reports on Prof. Ogban’s conviction over Akpabio’s election
By Tunde Opalana
A civil society organisation, Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa has described as false and misleading news reports on the Conviction of Prof. Peter Ogban over Senator Godswill Akpabio’s election
The Coalition said reports published by Premium Times and Sahara Reporters, alleging that the Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar upheld the conviction of Professor Peter Ogban for rigging a senatorial election in favour of Senator Godswill Akpabio are “entirely false, biased, and a gross distortion of both the facts and official court records.”
In a statement in Thursday, the Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa clarified issues surrounding the controversial victory of Godswill Akpabio in the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election, where Prof. Peter Ogban served as the Returning Officer.
Mr. John Mayaki, Country Director of the Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa in the statement said “the main contenders were Senator Godswill Akpabio of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator Chris Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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“Contrary to the misleading reports, Prof. Ogban did not declare Senator Akpabio the winner of the election. He declared Senator Chris Ekpenyong of the PDP as the winner.
“Evidence presented in court revealed that Prof. Ogban manipulated the election results in favour of the PDP candidate, not Senator Akpabio. In fact, he cancelled thousands of valid votes belonging to Senator Akpabio, including 61,329 votes in Akpabio’s hometown, which significantly altered the final outcome.
“Dissatisfied with this result, Senator Akpabio challenged the outcome at the Election Tribunal and subsequently at the Court of Appeal. Both courts found merit in his case and ordered a rerun in specific polling units.”
The CSO said “It is, therefore, both misleading and dishonest to suggest that Prof. Ogban acted to benefit Senator Akpabio. On the contrary, the evidence shows that his actions were prejudicial to Akpabio’s candidacy.”
It added that Prof. Ogban did not testify in support of Senator Akpabio during the legal proceedings, which is a clear indication that there was neither collusion nor benefit extended to him.
“The Certified True Copies (CTC) of the judgments from both the lower court and the Court of Appeal affirm that Prof. Ogban was found to have supported another candidate and not Senator Akpabio.
“To continue propagating this false narrative is intellectually dishonest, journalistically unethical, and deeply irresponsible,” the Coalition said.
The body, therefore called on concerned media platforms to retract the “misleading reports and issue corrections” in the interest of truth, justice, and public accountability.
” The records are unambiguous: Senator Godswill Akpabio was not the beneficiary of Prof. Ogban’s actions,” the CSO concluded.
