An internal investigative memorandum from the Information Technology Unit of the Nigerian Bar Association has said available system records do not corroborate the allegation by Akeem O. Aponmade, Esq., that his NBA portal account was hijacked through the backend six days to the Association’s national election.
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The confidential memo, dated July 14, 2026, was addressed to the NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, following Aponmade’s protest letter titled “Protest Over Hijack of My NBA Account 6 Days to Election.”
The memo, exclusively made available to and sighted by TheNigeriaLawyer, was prepared after the NBA President directed the IT Unit to investigate the allegation and report back with its findings.
Aponmade, of A. O. Aponmade & Co., NBA Ikeja Branch, had alleged that his NBA portal account was compromised at about 12:28 p.m. on July 13, 2026, after he allegedly received a “Reset Password OTP” email and a “Password Updated Successfully” email which he said he did not request.
He further claimed that he was subsequently unable to log into the portal and demanded a backend audit, public identification of any culprit and a police report.
However, according to the NBA IT memo sighted by TheNigeriaLawyer, the timeline contained in Aponmade’s protest letter was not supported by the system records reviewed by the Unit.
The IT Unit said it reviewed Aponmade’s protest letter, Postmark mail activity logs for his registered email, a stamp application update email, Credo payment gateway transaction receipt and NBA National Secretariat portal payment receipt.
According to the memo, while Aponmade claimed that the alleged hijack occurred at exactly 12:28 p.m., that time was “not corroborated by any system log reviewed.”
The memo stated that the earliest system-recorded event reviewed by the IT Unit was a stamp payment recorded on the NBA portal at about 2:09 p.m. WAT, followed by a Credo payment gateway transaction at about 2:10 p.m.
The payment records, according to the memo, carried the complainant’s identity details, including his name, registered email, branch, year of call and Supreme Court enrolment particulars, which matched the information contained in his protest letter.
The memo also stated that the payment processor receipt showed that the stamp fee payment was made through an Opay bank transfer, and that the payment gateway record independently corroborated the NBA portal timestamp within about 30 seconds.
The IT Unit further reported that the “Reset Password OTP” email was processed and delivered at about 3:06 p.m., while the “Password Updated Successfully” email was processed at about 3:08 p.m. and delivered at about 3:09 p.m.
It added that both emails were later opened from the complainant’s mailbox at about 3:10 p.m. and 3:11 p.m.
The memo also noted that a “Stamp Application Update” email was processed at about 3:54 p.m. and delivered at about 3:55 p.m., notifying Aponmade that his stamp and seal application had been rejected because he failed to upload a current branch dues receipt.
According to the IT Unit, this showed that the portal activity went beyond a mere attempted login and reached the stage of a substantive stamp and seal application, which was later reviewed by NBA staff and rejected.
The memo said a password reset was genuinely initiated and completed on the account, as reflected in the OTP and password update emails.
However, it stated that the available records showed that the stamp payment had already been completed before the password reset emails were sent.
The IT Unit said this sequence was difficult to reconcile with the claim that Aponmade had been locked out of the account from 12:28 p.m.
The memo also observed that Aponmade’s protest letter referred only to two of the recorded mail events — the OTP and password update emails — but did not mention the email-opened events, the stamp application update or the payment transaction.
In its analysis, the IT Unit said the available evidence was inconsistent with the account contained in the protest letter in three major respects.
First, it said the alleged time of 12:28 p.m. did not match any recorded system event, as the closest recorded activities occurred about one and a half to two and a half hours later.
Second, it said the alleged sequence of password reset followed by lockout was not supported by the records, because the payment was timestamped before the password reset emails.
Third, it said the account was not merely accessed, but used to complete a multi-step, fee-bearing stamp and seal application which was tied to the complainant’s own identity and payment channel.
The memo further noted that authorisation for the bank transfer would ordinarily require access to banking credentials or bank-side OTP, which is a separate authentication channel from the NBA portal.
According to the IT Unit, such banking access would not automatically be available to anyone merely because the person reset a portal password.
The memo stated that two possible explanations were consistent with the technical evidence.
It said one possibility was that the complainant personally carried out the activities and that the account of events in the protest letter was inaccurate.
It said another possibility was that a third party with access to both the complainant’s email inbox and his personal banking channel, such as a confidant, associate or family member, carried out the activities on his behalf or without his knowledge.
The IT Unit, however, cautioned that the available evidence did not conclusively distinguish between both possibilities, although it said the first explanation required fewer independent conditions to be true.
It added that portal-side login, IP and device logs, if retained, would help resolve the issue further.
In its conclusion, the IT Unit said the available evidence did not corroborate the central claim of an unauthorised backend hijack of Aponmade’s NBA account by NBA personnel or associates.
It said the portal activity following the password reset was more consistent with authenticated use of the account by someone with access to both the registered email inbox and the complainant’s personal payment channel.
The memo described its conclusion as a factual and evidentiary finding, not a legal determination of wrongdoing.
It also warned that no public statement attributing intent or dishonesty to Aponmade should be made on the strength of the memo alone.
The annexures to the memo sighted by TheNigeriaLawyer included the Postmark mail trail, the stamp application update after password reset, the NBA stamp receipt showing payment on July 13, and the payment processor receipt showing the corresponding transaction.
The investigation memo comes amid heightened scrutiny of the NBA portal and election processes ahead of the Association’s national officers’ election.
Aponmade’s protest had attracted attention after he alleged that his account was hijacked and called for a public audit.
The NBA IT memo now presents a different account, stating that the system timeline reviewed by the Unit does not support the allegation of a backend compromise, while also leaving room for further technical verification through portal login, IP and device records.
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