An Akwa Ibom State High Court, sitting in Uyo on Wednesday, sentenced Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) to three years’ imprisonment for electoral fraud.
Uduk, a Professor of Human Kinetics, served as the Collation and Returning Officer for the Essien Udim State Constituency during the March 2019 general election, where he falsified results in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Nse Ntuen.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), led by the then Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, initiated prosecution against Uduk on a three-count charge: announcing false election results, publishing falsified results, and perjury, for which he had been standing trial.
It would be recalled that Uduk had informed Igini of violence at the collation centre, claiming he was chased out. However, he went on to publish the election results 24 hours later and also testified before the Election Petition Tribunal.
Professor Uduk is not the first university lecturer to face conviction for a similar offense. A professor of Soil Science at the University of Calabar, Peter Ogban, was previously sentenced to three years in prison for a similar offence.
Ogban, who has served his three-year prison sentence for falsifying election results, was the INEC returning officer for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election in 2019. In that election, Christopher Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom defeated Godswill Akpabio, who is now the Senate President.
Mr Igini initiated both suits but was only able to secure Ogban’s conviction before retiring from INEC in 2022 after serving his final five years as REC in Akwa Ibom.
Uduk’s trial suffered multiple adjournments due to delays by the defendant, which eventually led to a change in the presiding judge.
He was first arraigned in December 2020 following an arrest warrant issued on him a previous month due to his repeated failures to appear in court for the commencement of his trial. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
After four years of trial, the judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, acquitted him on the first count but found him guilty on the second and third counts. Consequently, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for each of the two counts.
Uduk’s plea for leniency
The professor who was brought to the court in a wheelchair, appealed to the court to give him a soft landing either by fine or state pardon.
He begged the court to pardon him, saying, “This is my first offence. At age 70, I am going to prison. I was a professor in 2005, but the university forcefully retired me in 2020 because of this case.”
After listening to his leniency plea, the judge held that the prosecution counsel, Clement Onwuewunor, discharged the burden of proof that the defendant published false election results when he served as a collation/returning officer.
Citing Section 123(4) of the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended), which states: ‘Any person who announces or publishes an election result knowing same to be false or which is at variance with the signed certificate of return commits an offence and is liable on conviction to 36 months imprisonment,’ the judge held that the prosecution had established its case against the defendant.
Regarding the third charge of perjury, an offence punishable by 14 years’ imprisonment, the judge cited Section 118 of the Criminal Code Law, CAP 38, Laws of Akwa Ibom State 2000, where the offence is defined as: ‘Any person in any judicial proceeding or for the purpose of instituting any judicial proceeding, knowingly gives false testimony touching any matter which is material to any question then depending on that proceeding, or intended to be raised in that proceeding, is guilty of an offence which is called perjury.’
Considering the professor’s plea for leniency, Nkanang reduced the prison sentences to three years each for both charges, ordering that they run concurrently.
