NBA ECNBA PICS From left Prof. Agom, Tawo Tawo ( SAN), Mrs. Ekeh, Usoro ( SAN), Alozie and Haruna

By John Austin Unachukwu

The President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Paul Usoro, has inaugurated a five-member committee to mid-wife the next administration when his administration’s tenure ends in August 2020.

The Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) is headed by Tawo Tawo (SAN).

Its other members are Mrs. Cordelia Ekeh who serves as the secretary, Mr. Abdullahi Haruna (SAN), Prof Austin Agom and Mr. Alozie Echeonwu.

The names were announced last week at the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

Usoro told The Nation on the sidelines of the event that he inaugurated the committee in his office at the secretariat immediately after the NEC meeting.

On when the committee will release a time table for the July 2020 elections, “very soon,” Usoro said.

He confirmed that he had not lifted ban on campaigns in the association, but that there was no sanction for violators of the rule.

“The electoral committee will soon come out with the guidelines and time table for the elections,” Usoro added.

Also speaking on the sidelines, NBA Sokoto branch chairman, Mr. L.S. Wali said the greatest threat to credible elctions in the NBA is not vote-buying, but vote-stealing “through a rogue voting process by manipulation of the electronic voting. We have all seen what happened during the last elections.

“It is, therefore, time to call on the ECNBA to be just and fair in the elections by ensuring that the election process is not manipulated to favour any candidate.”

He demanded that the NBA electoral process should be clean and transparent.

According to him, this is the kind of call all well meaning Bar leaders should be making.

Wali added: “How can the ECNBA conduct credible elections without credible database?

“Which database will be used for the next elections and can it be subjected to forensic examination even before the elections?

“I spoke at an event recently on data protection in Nigeria: Lessons from the European Union (EU GDPR) and a young lawyer from Ikeja branch of the NBA opened my eyes to the realities of election rigging in the NBA.

“Not that I didn’t know this before as a tech enthusiast and an investor in legal tech myself, but I was shocked at the level of sophistication that the NBA election adopts in rigging her elections to favour anointed candidates.

“Let us begin to question the database for elections now before its too late” Wali stated.

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