It was a drama at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election last Thursday, as Olumide Akpata against all odds defeated Dele Adesina and Babatunde Ajibade both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to emerge the 30th NBA president.
The election, which was conducted electronically, however, saw Akpata who was a former chairman of the NBA Section on Business Law, polling 9,891 votes against Ajibade who scored 4,328 votes while Adesina had 3,982 votes.
Akpata, a graduate of Law from the University of Benin, was also the youngest of the three contestants and would lead the legal body for the next two years.
The 2020 election into national offices of the NBA, however, opened, at 11.00 p.m. on Wednesday (July 29) with a total of 29,635 accredited voters, and ended at 11.00 p.m. on Thursday (July 30) with a total of 18,256 ballots cast.
Speaking after the election, Akpata expressed appreciation to NBA members for electing him the President, and promised that the NBA would record transformation during his administration.
One of the contestants in the election, Adesina, however, called for the cancellation of the election, saying that the voters record contained several errors that could have been sorted out.
Other results of the election as announced by the chairman of the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA), Taiwo Taiwo saw John Aikpokpo-Martins elected NBA First Vice President with a total of 6,010 votes.
Adeyemo Kazeem emerged NBA Second Vice President with 8,794 votes, Joyce Oduah was elected NBA General Secretary with 8, 979 votes, while Uchenna Nwadialo polled 7,314 votes to emerge NBA’s Assistant General Secretary.
Mercy Agada was elected NBA Treasurer unopposed, Nnamdi Anagor emerged the financial secretary unopposed while Olukunle Edun was elected NBA Welfare Secretary with 9,001 votes.
Rapulu Nduka emerged the NBA Publicity Secretary with 11,964 votes while Naza Afam polled 6,490 votes to emerge NBA Assistant Publicity Secretary.
