By Deborah Adeyefa
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and candidate in the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, has called for the cancellation of the exercise and the conduct of a fresh election over alleged widespread irregularities.
Akangbe made the demand in a petition submitted to the NBA National Officers Election Appeal Committee (NBA-NOEAC), challenging the outcome of the July 18 election that produced Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya (SAN) as president-elect of the association.
According to the official results announced by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA), Badejo-Okunsanya secured 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of votes cast, while Akangbe polled 7,934 votes and Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN) received 5,855 votes.
In his petition dated July 27, Akangbe argued that the election failed to comply substantially with provisions of the NBA Constitution and the electoral guidelines governing the process.
One of his major complaints centred on the electronic voting platform used for the election. He alleged that the system became inaccessible shortly after voting commenced and remained unavailable for more than seven hours.
While the ECNBA reportedly attributed the disruption to a cyberattack, Akangbe questioned the explanation, arguing that the claim had not been independently verified.
He further alleged that election officials subsequently migrated the process to another voting platform that had neither been approved by the NBA National Executive Council nor subjected to testing by information technology representatives of the candidates.
According to him, the deployment of multiple voting links and websites created confusion among voters and undermined confidence in the integrity of the election.
Akangbe also raised concerns about voter participation, claiming that thousands of eligible lawyers were unable to cast their ballots because they did not receive the One-Time Passwords (OTPs) required for authentication.
He noted that although 82,213 lawyers were listed as eligible voters, only 26,106 successfully voted, leaving more than 56,000 lawyers unable to participate.
The senior advocate further alleged that even he was unable to vote despite being one of the candidates in the election.
As part of his appeal, Akangbe requested access to electronic records associated with the election, including server logs, authentication records, voter registers, OTP delivery reports and other technical data to facilitate an independent forensic audit.
He maintained that the alleged irregularities were substantial enough to affect the outcome of the election and insisted that the result could not be regarded as credible, transparent or valid.
The Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association, the ECNBA and Mrs Badejo-Okunsanya have been listed as respondents in the petition.
The appeal committee is expected to review the complaints and determine the next course of action regarding the disputed election.
