Senior Advocate Polls Over 9,300 Votes as Technical Glitches and Election Disputes Rock NBA Poll
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has taken an early lead in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election despite controversies surrounding Saturday’s nationwide electronic voting exercise.
Live results from the election portal showed Badejo-Okusanya leading with 9,323 votes (45.43%), ahead of Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who polled 6,385 votes (31.12%), while Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, secured 4,812 votes (23.45%) out of 20,520 votes cast.
If she is declared the winner, Badejo-Okusanya will become only the second female President in the history of the Nigerian Bar Association.
The results also indicated that approximately 20,520 of the 82,164 registered voters had voted, representing about 25 percent voter turnout as of the time of reporting.
The election was preceded by weeks of disagreements, including litigation, calls for postponement and disputes over the adoption of a consensus candidate after the NBA presidency was zoned to the Western region.
Although Egbe Amofin O’odua, the umbrella body of Yoruba lawyers, adopted Akinboro as its consensus candidate and sought a court order to compel the NBA to recognise him as the sole candidate, the association proceeded with the election with all three candidates on the ballot.
The poll was also marred by alleged technical glitches that delayed voting for several hours.
Shortly after voting commenced, Akangbe submitted an emergency protest to the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), calling for the immediate suspension of the election over alleged irregularities.
He claimed the electronic voting portal collapsed, one-time passwords (OTPs) were sent via email instead of SMS contrary to revised guidelines, and the presidential ballot displayed the photograph of only one candidate while omitting others.
Akangbe argued that the alleged shortcomings compromised the credibility and integrity of the election.
Meanwhile, in other national offices, Oghenero Okoro led the race for First Vice-President, Afam O. Okeke was ahead in the General Secretary contest, Aghogho Okpomor led the Assistant General Secretary race, Audrey Ofoegbunam topped the Welfare Secretary contest, while Prince I. Azubuike maintained the lead for Publicity Secretary.
The election was still ongoing at the time of filing this report.
