Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has taken an early lead in the ongoing 2026 Nigerian Bar Association presidential election, according to provisional figures from the election results dashboard.

As of 11:33 a.m. on Saturday, Badejo-Okusanya had polled 4,860 votes, representing 41.77 per cent of the ballots counted in the presidential race.

Her closest challenger, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, had 3,851 votes, representing 33.10 per cent, while Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, had 2,924 votes, representing 25.13 per cent.

The figures showed that about 11,600 votes had been recorded at the time of the update, with final results still being awaited.

If the trend is sustained, Badejo-Okusanya would be on course to become the second female President of the NBA, and the first woman to lead the Association in more than three decades after Dame Priscilla Kuye.

The development comes amid heightened attention on the July 18 NBA election, which had been preceded by weeks of controversy over the credibility of the process, the voting platform, voter authentication, calls for National Identification Number verification and demands by some stakeholders for the election to be postponed.

It also came less than 24 hours after NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, dismissed allegations that he was attempting to rig or interfere with the election.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, Osigwe insisted that the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association operated independently and took no instructions from him.

He also rejected claims that he was backing a preferred candidate, describing the allegations as politically motivated and unsupported by evidence.

According to him, only the ECNBA is constitutionally empowered to conduct the election.

Osigwe also maintained that allegations that NBA elections had always been manipulated had not been established in court.

He further said his personal voting preference, assuming he had one, could not influence the outcome of the election since he was not in charge of the process.

The provisional results remain subject to official confirmation by the ECNBA.

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