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.
