Olumuyiwa Akinboro, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and
candidate in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election, has
petitioned the association’s leadership, alleging widespread irregularities in
the conduct of the July 18 national officers’ election.
In a 19-page petition dated July 27 and addressed to the
chairman of the Body of Benchers, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF),
the General Council of the Bar, the NBA president, the electoral committee of
the NBA (ECNBA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the
Department of State Services (DSS), Akinboro called for “urgent intervention
and redress”.
The senior lawyer alleged that the election was marred by
institutional bias, lack of transparency in the appointment of election service
providers, failure to implement agreed voter authentication measures, and
technical glitches that disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters.
Akinboro also claimed that the NBA leadership openly backed
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya, who won the election, during the campaign.
He alleged that the association’s official platforms and
activities were deployed in support of Badejo-Okunsanya, while other
contestants were denied similar opportunities.
He also accused the ECNBA of abandoning an earlier agreement
reached with the presidential candidates to adopt the national identification
number (NIN) and telephone numbers for voter authentication, alleging that the
committee instead retained a system based on supreme court enrolment numbers
and email-generated one-time passwords (OTPs).
According to him, the authentication process led to
widespread complaints from lawyers who were unable to receive OTPs required to
vote.
Akinboro further alleged that after the election portal
reportedly suffered a cyberattack, the ECNBA migrated voting to a different
platform without informing the candidates or conducting the integrity tests
required under the NBA constitution.
He also questioned the competence of the service providers
engaged for the election, alleging that one of them lacked the experience
required to conduct an online election of the NBA’s scale.
The former NBA general secretary argued that the low
turnout, which he cited to be 26,184 votes out cast of 82,172 eligible voters,
together with the number of lawyers allegedly unable to vote because they did
not receive OTPs, was enough to have affected the outcome of the election.
“The purported new portal did not pass the tests prescribed
by the NBA Constitution and as such could not have hosted an election known to
the NBA Constitution,” he said.
“In conclusion, there was no election.”
Among other demands, Akinboro called for an independent
forensic audit of the electoral process by an audit firm, a security
investigation into the conduct of the election, publication of observers’
reports, reconstitution of the ECNBA, and the conduct of a fresh election.
The 2026 NBA presidential election was held amid controversy
over the electoral process.
The presidency was zoned to the western axis of the country.
At the same time, pre-election disputes included litigation by Egbe Amofin
O’odua, an association of lawyers of Yoruba extraction, seeking to compel the
NBA to recognise Akinboro as the sole consensus candidate for the western zone.
On the day of the election, Lateef Akangbe, another
presidential candidate, also demanded the suspension of the poll, citing the
collapse of the electronic voting portal, alleged security breaches and flaws
in the voting process.
Badejo-Okusanya emerged winner of the NBA presidential
election, polling 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 percent of the total votes
cast, to defeat her closest challenger, Akangbe, who secured 7,934 votes,
representing 30.39 percent.
Akinboro, the third presidential candidate, polled 5,855
votes, representing 22.43 percent of the total votes.
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