A candidate in the recently concluded election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN) has written a petition against the process, alleging that the election results were manipulated with pre-determined data.
According to Adesina, in a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NBA, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, the election which was won by Mr. Olumide Akpata should be cancelled.
Mr. Adesina, a former Secretary-General of the NBA contested and lost the election for the presidency of the association alongside Dr. Babatunde Ajibade to Mr. Olumide Akpata who is not a senior advocate of Nigeria.
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He alleged that the NBA election was marred with over-voting, voter disenfranchisement, and non-compliance with the constitution of the Bar Association.
He further alleged that the verified voters register was manipulated, doctored and padded.
According to the SAN;
“4,464 names of purported Lawyers without Branches ascribed to any of them from Serial Number 25171 to 29635. This List obviously provided cover for harvested voters without Branches.
86 names of Lawyers (were) under the category ‘International Diaspora’ from Serial Number 12182 to 12268, a clear violation of the provisions of the Constitution of the NBA. International Diaspora as a Branch is unknown to the NBA Constitution.”
Adesina also said some of the figures from the branches were inflated. He said; “For instance, Obollo-Afor Branch had only 39 names from Serial Number 30424 to 30462 on the Final List for Verification. Strangely, this increased to 662 on the Verified Voters List published on the date of the Election.”
He further alleged that some names of eligible voters were expunged from the final voters list.
“For example: Ikeja, Ibadan, Enugu, Ife, Ado-Ekiti and many others had their number of voters substantially reduced without any explanation whatsoever or howsoever.” He said.
The same situation was reported when Paul Usoro (SAN) won his election as NBA President. There was alleged manipulation of the voter list with many unknown names added.
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