A former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Branch, Mr. Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, has called for an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation into the recently concluded election into the Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL).
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Akangbe made the call in a statement issued on Monday, December 16, 2025, expressing dismay over what he described as “disturbing allegations” of electoral manipulation, interference with due process, and brazen breach of the NBA Constitution.
The senior lawyer was reacting to allegations made by Dr. Anne Uriegi Agi and Barbara Tosan Onwubiko, who claimed they were unconstitutionally excluded from the NBA-SPIDEL election despite submitting nomination forms for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer respectively.
According to the allegations, both women were replaced with “hand-picked” candidates who did not submit nomination forms, following a meeting held on December 2, 2025, under the auspices of the NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN.
The exclusion was allegedly based on what Akangbe described as “petty partisanship and vengeance,” running contrary to all acceptable democratic tenets.
Adding weight to the controversy, it was reported that the Chairman of the NBA-SPIDEL Electoral Committee, Mr. Kunle Edun, SAN, resigned on account of the decisions reached at the December 2 meeting.
Akangbe did not treat the allegations as isolated incidents but placed them within what he called “the fuller context of perennial allegations of election rigging, manipulation of the NBA voting system and brazen disregard of provisions of the NBA Constitution” that have trailed successive NBA elections, especially in the last decade.
“At least three out of the last five NBA national elections, including the most recent election that produced the current NBA President, have resulted in court litigation,” Akangbe stated, noting that an appeal against a High Court decision refusing a petitioner access to conduct a post-election audit is still pending before the Court of Appeal.
He lamented that these controversies “have caused significant reputational damage to our esteemed Association, while repeated promises by the winners of these elections to undertake electoral reforms have largely remained unfulfilled.”
The senior advocate expressed concern over what he described as the NBA leadership’s “haphazard denial” of the allegations.
According to Akangbe, a press release dated December 13, 2025, was first purportedly issued by the Publicity Secretary, Bright Edokwe, but was later reissued in the name of the NBA 1st Vice President, Sabastine Anyia, after Edokwe denied its authorship.
“This alone calls for concern,” Akangbe stated.
Analyzing the NBA’s press release, Akangbe noted that it raised more questions than it answered. The release claimed that contrary to a resolution of the NBA National Executive Council (NBA-NEC) on May 11, 2025, the NBA-SPIDEL interim leadership led by Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, wrongly set up an Electoral Committee chaired by Kunle Edun, SAN.
However, according to the press release, the NBA national leadership only intervened on the eve of the election when they discovered the Electoral Committee was about to clear Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martin whom the NBA leadership considered unqualified—as a candidate for the Chairmanship of NBA-SPIDEL, along with other allegedly “hand-picked nominees.”
It was for this reason, the release stated, that NBA President Osigwe convened a meeting of “so-called stakeholders” of NBA-SPIDEL to avert an electoral crisis.
Akangbe posed three fundamental constitutional questions left unanswered by the NBA’s press release:
First: “What provisions of the NBA Constitution arrogated to the NBA national leadership, as opposed to the Electoral Committee or the NBA-SPIDEL interim leadership, the power to determine the eligibility of candidates?”
Second: “What provisions of the NBA Constitution mandated the NBA President to unilaterally call a ‘stakeholders’ meeting and override the decision of the Electoral Committee or the NBA-SPIDEL interim leadership?”
Third: “What then is the role of the NBA Sections Election Appeal Committee created by the NBA Constitution?”
The former Lagos NBA Chairman warned that the controversy raises serious concerns about the 2026 NBA national elections, which are just six months away.
“This latest fiasco not only raises fundamental questions regarding the legitimacy of the recently held NBA-SPIDEL election but calls into question the readiness of the NBA to conduct a free and fair election into national offices in 2026,” he stated.
Akangbe reminded the legal community that the NBA is “without a doubt, the foremost professional membership association in Nigeria and the most influential network of legal practitioners in Africa.”
He noted that the NBA has consistently expressed its commitment to upholding the principles of democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria, regularly monitoring electoral events across the country and holding government accountable for impunity, abuse of office, and constitutional violations.
“As Nigeria’s foremost professional Association, our electoral process ought to be the standard for others to follow. These allegations seriously undermine our stated desire to be the watchdog of the society, tasked with holding successive Nigerian and State governments to account,” he stated.
Emphasizing the gravity of the allegations, Akangbe said they border on “constitutional infraction, undue interference with electoral process, abuse of office and high-handedness” and are “egregious in nature.”
He warned that if established, the allegations “are capable of destroying confidence in the ability of the NBA to conduct a just, free and fair election into national offices in 6 months time.”
Quoting Lord Denning, Akangbe stated: “Justice must be rooted in confidence; and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: The Judge was biased.”
The senior advocate called on “well-meaning members of the Association” to join his call for an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation into the 2025 NBA-SPIDEL election.
The NBA Constitution guarantees free and fair elections not just into the National Executive Committee of the NBA and the General Council of the Bar, but also into various Branches’ executive committees and the Sections of the NBA, such as NBA-SPIDEL.
However, successive elections, especially those for national officers, have been plagued by allegations of manipulation and rigging to favor “anointed candidates,” with at least three of the last five NBA national elections ending in court litigation.
As of press time, neither the NBA President nor the NBA-SPIDEL leadership had issued any further statement addressing the specific constitutional questions raised by Akangbe in his statement.
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