The controversies that trailed the released final voters list of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) over an Abuja Branch Lawyer bearing “Opening Balance” seem to be unabated.

TheNigeriaLawyer came to the realization that there exists four different persons with the name “Opening Balance Esq” on Twitter, as their handles, with the following usernames: @dameaijay, @Mrkayode, @Aesthetic_toyin, @agbafe2.

Furthermore, TheNigeriaLawyer discovered that there exists an account formerly named “Opening Balance Esq” with the username: “@Oddy4real” earlier today, but which was later changed to one “Rangeless Oddy”.

Besides, as at when the above account beared “Opening Balance Esq”, the handler twitted thus:

“Go through this chilling thread and see how desperate the Establishment ‘Seniors’ are.

“Anyways, the non-Lawyers desperately trying to advocate and rig in this archaic man are always happy to have broke Lawyers at their beck and call. Easy

“That is why they are registering ‘OPENING BALANCE’ to vote in the NBA elections. Such desperation.“

TheNigeriaLawyer further recalls that the controversies that trailed “Opening Balance” on no. 5500 on the released ECNBA final voters list necessitated Prof. Chidi Odinkalu to state:

“According to the final list of voters released by NigerianBarAssociation’s ECNBA, there is a lawyer in Abuja called “Opening Balance”.”

“How credible is the VotersList for NBADecides2020?

“What are the ECNBA & the campaigns doing to ensure NBADecides2020 is not another charade”

Furthermore, the Secretary of ECNBA, Cordelia U. Eke, Esq., in a reaction to this stated that what determines eligibility to vote is verification. Therefore, once “Opening Balance” is unverifiable, it is ineligible to vote.

“The important thing about the list is that only those that are verified will be able to vote. Opening balance on the list cannot verify that means he cannot vote even though the name is on the list. That is why we said even though there are duplication, we are cleaning the list, to remove duplications such as that.

“It is only those that get verified, meaning that you must have your supreme Court Enrollment Number and your Call to The Bar Certificate. If you don’t have all that you cannot vote. For this election, emphasis is on VERIFICATION.” She said.

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