Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, one of the presidential candidates in the just-concluded 2026 Nigerian Bar Association National Officers Election, has described the exercise as the worst election in the history of the NBA, alleging that the process was marred by secrecy, poor preparation, multiple voting portals, OTP failures, ballot errors and widespread disenfranchisement.
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Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics, Akinboro said the result announced by the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association could not cure the alleged defects in the process, insisting that the complaints were not personal to him but had been widely raised by lawyers across branches and on social media.
He said that out of over 82,000 lawyers qualified to vote, only about 31 per cent participated, arguing that such low turnout showed that many eligible voters were unable to exercise their franchise.
According to him, Lagos Branch, which he said had almost 20,000 qualified voters, recorded only about 3,000 voters, while Abuja, with close to 18,000 eligible voters, recorded about 4,000 plus votes. He also cited Kano, Ilorin and Ibadan as examples of major branches where turnout was allegedly poor.
Akinboro said he was also unable to vote in the election because he could not receive the One-Time Password required to access the voting platform.
“Even me, a candidate in the election, I could not even vote for myself. I tried several times. I could not receive any OTP,” he said.
He alleged that the election, which was scheduled to commence at 12 midnight on July 18, failed to proceed properly after the voting website went down shortly after it opened. He said a notice was displayed that the election had been suspended, but no clear information was given on when voting would resume.
According to him, he waited until about 6:30 a.m. before going to sleep, only to be woken up later and told that voting had resumed without proper notice to members.
He argued that the lack of notice was partly responsible for the extremely low turnout, because many lawyers believed the election had been suspended indefinitely.
Akinboro also faulted the explanation that the initial failure of the platform was caused by a cyberattack. He said that while a cyberattack could shut down a system, it could not explain errors in the information uploaded to the ballot.
He alleged that when the platform first opened, his name was not correctly displayed and his photograph was missing from the ballot, while another candidate’s name and photograph were displayed.
He said the ECNBA should admit that it was not prepared for the election rather than blame everything on a cyberattack.
Akinboro further alleged that candidates were not properly carried along in the process. He said he was not invited to bring an agent to monitor the election, was not invited when service providers were being interviewed, and was not invited to witness the migration of the voters’ register to the voting platform.
He said the process was “shrouded in mystery and secrecy,” adding that the 2026 election stood out as the worst of all the NBA elections that lawyers had complained about in recent years.
The senior lawyer also alleged that the NBA leadership could not be trusted to deliver a free and fair process. He maintained that from the beginning of his campaign, he had warned that the then leadership of the Association and the ECNBA could not conduct a credible election without independent supervision.
Akinboro accused the NBA leadership of supporting one candidate and said the outcome was not surprising to him.
He alleged that the President of the NBA had openly supported a candidate and that the electoral process was structured to produce a predetermined result.
He also criticised what he described as the failure of institutions within the legal profession to intervene before the election. According to him, complaints were taken to the Body of Benchers, the General Council of the Bar and past NBA Presidents, but he alleged that they failed to act.
He said only the Attorney-General of the Federation stood up by convening a meeting where some issues were discussed.
Akinboro said the meeting, which he claimed was arranged by the NBA President, had in attendance the Attorney-General, the Chairman of the Body of Benchers and the ECNBA, and that parties agreed on measures that could give the election credibility.
According to him, one of the agreed measures was one device, one vote, but he alleged that what later happened showed that people were able to vote for others using the same device.
He said the ECNBA must explain how many votes were cast from the same devices and whether multiple voting occurred.
When asked whether he had proof, Akinboro said he and his team were still gathering evidence and would present it if he decided to proceed to court.
He said the issue was not a do-or-die contest for him, but a matter of principle and institutional reform.
“I never went to this election that I must win by all means. For me, it was never a do-or-die thing. I went to this election to make sure that I clean our system, our electoral process,” he said.
He also rejected the suggestion that the technology failure could be explained merely by high traffic or delayed response from the backend system, saying such an explanation still showed lack of preparedness.
Akinboro said a platform meant to serve over 80,000 lawyers should have been properly tested and demonstrated before election day.
He alleged that the NBA moved from one portal to another during the election, claiming that within 24 hours, lawyers were asked to use about five or six different websites.
According to him, the NBA had advertised one voting portal and warned members not to vote through any other portal, yet different links were allegedly sent during the exercise.
He said the development created confusion and showed that the system was not ready.
Akinboro said the 2026 election recorded the lowest turnout since electronic voting was introduced in the NBA, noting that previous elections had recorded more than 50 per cent turnout.
He argued that lawyers could not continue to criticise national elections conducted by INEC while tolerating serious flaws in their own professional association’s election.
He said he was still consulting with his team on whether to go to court, adding that a decision would be made within 24 hours.
Akinboro maintained that his main concern was not personal ambition, but the need to correct the NBA electoral system so that future elections would not suffer the same alleged defects.
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