NBA Election Worst In History, Marred By Irregularities — SAN Olumuyiwa

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Akinboro Olumuyiwa, has described the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association election as the worst in the association’s history, alleging that irregularities marred the exercise.

Olumuyiwa, who was one of the candidates in the July 19 election, rejected the outcome during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday.

The NBA had declared Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, winner of the election after she polled 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of the total votes cast.

However, Olumuyiwa alleged that the voting process was plagued by technical failures, including the collapse of the voting portal shortly after polling commenced.

According to him, the election, which was scheduled to begin at 12:00 a.m., encountered problems within 30 minutes, with his name and photograph allegedly missing from the ballot.

“This is the worst of all the elections we have been having in the NBA. The election was supposed to commence by 12 midnight. Within 30 minutes, the site crashed and my name did not come out on the ballot. My picture was not in the ballot,” he said.

He said the organizers later attributed the disruption to a cyberattack, an explanation he dismissed.

“They suddenly shut down and later told me it was a cyberattack. A cyberattack will not change what has been inputted into the system. It can only shut down the system,” he added.

Olumuyiwa further claimed that the uncertainty surrounding the process affected participation, saying the election was initially suspended before voting later resumed.

“From midnight, I went to sleep around 6:30 a.m. after they said the election was suspended. A lot of people went to sleep. They woke me up again and said the election was on,” he said.