The High Court sitting Uyo, Akwa Ibom has sentenced Professor Ignatius Uduk of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) to three years imprisonment for electoral fraud during the 2019 general elections.
Uduk, a Professor of Human Kinetics, served as a Collation/Returning officer for Essien Udim State Constituency in March, 2019. He had been standing trial in a three-count charge of announcing false results, publishing false results and perjury.
The trial judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, acquitted him on count one but found him guilty of counts two and three. He, therefore, sentenced the Professor to three years on each of the two counts.
INEC, under Mike Igini as Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Akwa Ibom state, had opened prosecution against Uduk, on a three-count amended charge of abandonment of duties, publishing/announcing of fake election result scores and lying on oath.
While another UNIUYO Professor, Peter Ogban who was also arraigned by INEC under similar circumstances, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, the trial of Professor Uduk suffered repeated adjournments on the part of the Defendant, resulting in a change of the presiding judge.
Of the three charges brought against him by INEC, Justice Bassey Nkanang of Uyo High Court 5 acquitted Uduk, on Count 1 but convicted and sentenced him to three years imprisonment each on Counts 2 and 3. The sentences are to run concurrently.
The judgment marked the end of a five-year legal battle by INEC against electoral fraud in the 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom state.