NBA Election: Badejo-Okusanya extends lead in presidential race

Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the only female candidate in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential election, has widened her lead in the race. When PREMIUM TIMES checked the live election results portal at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, Mrs Badejo-Okusanya had polled 11,352 votes, representing 46.69 per cent of the 24,314 votes cast in the presidential election. She is followed by Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, also a SAN, who had secured 7,415 votes (30.50 per cent), while Olumuyiwa Akinboro, also a SAN, polled 5,547 votes (22.81 per cent). The live results portal also showed that 24,384 of the 82,165 registered voters had voted, representing a 29.68 per cent turnout yet as of 9:54 p.m. There has been no emarkable shift in the standings of the individual candidates since when PREMIUM TIMES last reported from the results portal at 4:15 p.m. Of the three candidates, only Mrs Badejo-Okusanya secured additional votes that were substantial enough to increase her share of the total votes cast. The marginal rise in the two other candidates’ votes settled a lower percentage share of the votes cast for each of them. Within about six hours, Mrs Badejo-Okusanya’s votes increased from 9,053 to 11,352, adding roughly one and a half decimal points to her previous 45.18 per cent share. During the same period, Mr Akangbe increased his votes from 6,253 (31.27 per cent) to 7,415 (30.50 per cent). Mr Akinboro’s votes also rose from 4,709 votes (23.54 per cent) to 5,547 votes (22.81 per cent). The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) has yet to declare the final result as of the time of filing this report, as voting is still in progress. The lead followed a series of controversies that cast a shadow on the election before voting commenced on Saturday. The electronic voting is expected to last for 24 hours from the time of commencement. Although scheduled to commence at 12:00 a.m. West African Time on Saturday, voting did not begin until 7:35 a.m. This means voting is expected to close at 7:35 a.m. on Sunday, after which the final result can be determined. Election results for other offices Results from other national offices also showed that Chief Oghenero Okoro was leading the first vice president race with 10,186 votes (44.52 per cent), while Afam O. Okeke was ahead in the general secretary contest with 7,880 votes (33.50 per cent). Aghogho Gladys Okpomor led the assistant general secretary race with 13,330 votes (56.74 per cent). Esther Ifeoma Jimoh, the sole candidate for treasurer, had polled 20,440 votes as of PRMIUM TIMES’ last check. In other contests, Audrey Chinelo Ofoegbunam was leading the welfare secretary race with 13,852 votes (60.22 per cent). Prince I. Azubuike was ahead in the publicity secretary race with 13,691 votes (61.92 per cent), while Hadiza Nasir Ahmad was leading the assistant publicity secretary contest with 9,378 votes (40.65 per cent). For the General Council of the Bar elections, Chidi Betsy Nnaji was leading the Eastern Zone race with 9,831 votes, Rotimi Komolafe was ahead in the Western Zone with 13,839 votes, while Huwaila Muhammad Ibrahim topping the Northern Zone contest with 12,405 votes. Voting delay Voting, which was scheduled to commence at 12 a.m. on Saturday, did not commence until 7.35 a.m. Accordimg to the ECNBA, the delay was caused by a “deliberate, coordinated and sustained cyberattack” that the voting platform suffered from external actors seeking to disrupt the election. The committee apologised to members and postponed the commencement of voting until 7:35 a.m. It said its cybersecurity team and the Election Voting Service Provider activated security protocols to repel the attack, neutralise the threat and restore the platform. It also maintained that no votes had been cast or accepted while the system remained offline and advised lawyers to await further instructions before attempting to access the voting portal. The disruption prompted many lawyers, including one of the presidential candidates, Mr Akangbe, to demand the immediate suspension of the election. In a protest letter to the ECNBA, Mr Akangbe described the situation as a “catastrophic structural and technical collapse” of the electoral process less than three hours after voting commenced. He alleged that the voting portal became inaccessible to most of the association’s more than 82,000 accredited voters, with users reporting authentication failures, error messages and repeated timeouts. He also questioned reports that votes cast before the outage could be cancelled if the process restarted, arguing that such a development raised concerns about the integrity of the election. Mr Akangbe further alleged that the ECNBA breached its revised electronic voting guidelines by sending one-time passwords (OTPs) through email instead of SMS, contrary to assurances given to members less than 24 hours before the election. READ ALSO: NBA Election: Only female candidate Badejo-Okusanya takes early lead in presidential election race He argued that the change compromised the election’s authentication framework. Mr Akangbe also alleged that the electronic ballot displayed the photograph of only one of the three cleared presidential candidates, while the photographs of the other two candidates, including his, were either omitted or failed to render. He urged the ECNBA to suspend the election, preserve all electronic voting records, commission an independent forensic audit of the platform and postpone the poll until the identified concerns were resolved. The controversy came two days after the NBA insisted the election would proceed as scheduled despite the detention of the managing director of its election service provider by the State Security Service (SSS). The association’s National Executive Council condemned the detention, demanded the official’s immediate release and reaffirmed that there was no operational or logistical reason to postpone the election. The NBA later confirmed that the official had been released before voting day.