Olumide Akpata has won the election for the presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.
Akpata polled a total of 9, 879 votes to defeat two senior advocates, Babatunde Ajibade and Julius Adesina.
The election which was conducted online had over 29,000 accredited voters, with votes cast electronically until 11pm on Thursday when voting portals were closed.
The outcome of the election is already generating controversy as one of the candidates, Julius Adesina, SAN described the process as questionable.
Among the complaints listed by Adesina are failure to release the final voters list within constitutionally prescribed period and padding of voters’ list of some banches, and reduction in the number of published voters’ list
The NBA election was already dogged with credibility crisis weeks before the exercise commenced with notable activist lawyers like Chidi Odinkalu accusing the electoral committee of managing a rigged process.
Akpata’s win marks the first time in over 3 decades that the President of the NBA will be emerging from the outer bar, and not among the rank of senior advocates.
Alao Aka-Bashorun, widely regarded as one of finest Presidents of the Bar who served between 1987 to 1989 during the repressive military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, was not a senior advocate.
Other lawyers had used his example as a campaign weapon to wrest the leadership of the Association from the privileged class of senior advocates.
Akpata is an expert in corporate and commercial law and is set to take over from Paul Usoro next month.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
