Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, has emerged as the early frontrunner in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election, despite controversies surrounding Saturday’s poll.
According to live results published on the election portal, Badejo-Okusanya had secured 9,323 votes, representing 45.43 per cent of the ballots cast. She was ahead of Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who polled 6,385 votes (31.12 per cent), while Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, garnered 4,812 votes (23.45 per cent) out of the 20,520 votes recorded.
If she is eventually declared the winner, Badejo-Okusanya will become only the second woman to serve as president of the NBA.
The results also showed that 20,520 of the association’s 82,164 registered voters had cast their ballots, representing an estimated voter turnout of 25 per cent as of the time of filing this report.
The election followed weeks of disputes over the electoral process, including court cases, calls for a postponement and disagreements over the adoption of a consensus candidate for the presidency.
With the presidency zoned to the western region, Egbe Amofin O’odua, the umbrella body of Yoruba lawyers, adopted Akinboro as its consensus candidate and sought a court order directing the NBA to recognise him as the sole candidate from the zone.
Despite the legal challenge, the association proceeded with the election, retaining all three candidates on the ballot.
The exercise was also marred by reports of technical glitches that delayed voting for several hours.
Soon after voting began, Akangbe submitted an emergency protest to the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), demanding the immediate suspension of the election.
The former NBA Lagos Branch chairman alleged that the electronic voting portal had failed, that one-time passwords (OTPs) were sent to voters via email instead of SMS contrary to the committee’s revised guidelines, and that the presidential ballot displayed the photograph of only one candidate while excluding the others.
He argued that the reported irregularities had undermined the integrity of the election.
“A flawed, rushed election carried out today under these chaotic conditions cannot yield a credible result,” Akangbe stated in his protest.
“Whoever is declared the winner of an election conducted on a collapsed portal, with breached authentication, and on a visually defective ballot, will not lead the Bar with the confidence of the profession.”
In other positions being contested, Oghenero Okoro was leading the race for first vice-president with 8,355 votes (43.28 per cent), while Afam O. Okeke topped the contest for general secretary with 6,526 votes (32.79 per cent).
Aghogho Okpomor led the race for assistant general secretary with 11,302 votes (56.96 per cent), Audrey Ofoegbunam was ahead in the welfare secretary election with 11,700 votes (60.07 per cent), while Prince I. Azubuike led the publicity secretary contest with 11,554 votes (61.60 per cent).
Voting was still ongoing at the time this report was filed.