|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: A coalition of 56 CSOs claimed Godswill Akpabio served in the 9th assembly following a rigged election.
Verdict: False. News reports and interviews with national assembly correspondents confirm Akpabio never served in the 9th assembly.
Full Text
A coalition of 56 civil society organisations has claimed (archived here) that Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in the 10th Senate, benefited from electoral fraud to get into the red chamber for a brief period in 2019.
The claim, published (archived here) in several newspapers on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, emanated from a statement calling for Akpabio’s resignation and a probe.
This came after the Court of Appeal in Calabar upheld (archived here) the conviction of Peter Ogban, a professor jailed in 2021 for rigging the 2019 senatorial election in two local government areas in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Akpabio.
The CSOs that signed the statement include the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), and Centre for Social Justice.
An excerpt from their statement reads: “Having been a confirmed beneficiary of electoral fraud in the 2019 election to the 9th Senate, which he did not complete due to his appointment as Minister of Niger Delta, does Akpabio have the legal or moral standing to contest for a seat in the 10th National Assembly, let alone serve as its President?”
Verification
FIJ reviewed news reports on the 2019 electoral fraud. A report (archived here) published on March 25, 2021, on Ogban’s conviction detailed how Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor in Akwa Ibom State and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the senatorial election, defeated Akpabio.
The report also revealed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prosecuted Ogban for manipulating results in the state’s Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo local government areas. Despite these manipulations, Ekpenyong still emerged victorious.
FIJ also obtained a copy of the court filing before Justice Augustine Odokwo of the High Court of Akwa Ibom State. This document confirms the details of the news report.
On Feb. 27, 2019, Akpabio told Channels Television during a live programme (archived here) that he would challenge his election loss in court.
Recently, on April 1, 2025, Aniete Ekong, a former media aide of Akpabio’s, reacted (archived here) to Ogban’s failed appeal, distancing the Senate president from the professor, and confirming Akpabio never made it to the Senate in 2019.
Ekong said, “For the avoidance of doubt, Ogban never announced Akpabio as the winner of any election. Instead, he cancelled his lawful votes and announced his opponent as the winner of the manipulated election.”
To verify the CSOs’ information source, FIJ spoke with Auwal Rafsanjani, CISLAC Executive Director, via WhatsApp on Thursday. Rafsanjani sent a voice note explaining that they relied on reports of Ogban’s conviction and the court documents. He said Akpabio was in the Senate briefly before President Muhammadu Buhari made him a minister.
However, public records and interviews with sources differ from this position.
FIJ texted Bakare Mojeed, a journalist who covered the National Assembly for Premium Times Newspaper and the Order Paper for eight years. Mojeed told FIJ he conferred with other journalists who reported on the senate, and they all agreed Akpabio never served in 2019.
The newspaper checked the National Assembly’s website for details of the 9th assembly’s members, but found that the platform did not house information about members preceding the 10th assembly.
FIJ also checked Akpabio’s profile page on the website and found no information on his past political roles before he occupied the Senate President seat. We called Kamoru Ogunlana, the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), but he did not take our calls as of press time.
Conclusion
From the information gathered by DUBAWA, the claim that Akpabio served in the 9th Senate for a brief period is false.
