Fresh complaints have continued to trail the ongoing 2026 Nigerian Bar Association National Elections, as several lawyers reported difficulties receiving One-Time Passwords, accessing the voting portal and completing authentication despite the commencement of voting.
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The complaints came after the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association announced that voting would begin at 7:35 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, 2026, following an earlier delay which the ECNBA attributed to a coordinated cyberattack on the e-voting platform.
The ECNBA had also migrated the voting portal to a new domain and directed eligible voters to use the official link:
https://ecnba.org.ng/vote/ecnba-ovs-main/index.php
The Committee has also provided a live results dashboard where members can monitor the election after voting through:
According to the live results dashboard reviewed by TheNigeriaLawyer, the platform displays real-time vote status and updates every 10 seconds. The dashboard showed 82,164 registered voters, 12,070 voters who had voted, and 14.69 per cent turnout as of 11:54:08 a.m. WAT, while the last vote timestamp displayed was 6:54:08 a.m. WAT.
This means that, based on the dashboard figure of 82,164 registered voters, about 70,094 voters had not voted at the time of the update, representing about 85.31 per cent of the register.
The presidential section of the dashboard showed 12,031 total votes cast for that position.
According to the displayed tally, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, was leading with 5,044 votes, representing 41.93 per cent.
Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, had 3,972 votes, representing 33.01 per cent, while Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, had 3,015 votes, representing 25.06 per cent.
Badejo-Okusanya was ahead of Akangbe by 1,072 votes, while Akangbe led Akinboro by 957 votes at the time of the dashboard update.
The figures remain live, provisional and subject to official confirmation by the ECNBA.
Meanwhile, lawyers continued to complain of OTP-related problems on the voting platform.
Some lawyers said they had not received their authentication codes, while others who received OTPs complained that the system rejected them.
One of the error messages seen by TheNigeriaLawyer read: “Unable to send the authentication code at the moment.”
Another read: “Too many OTP requests. Please wait five minutes.”
A further error displayed after an OTP was entered stated: “The authentication session is invalid. Please request a new OTP.”
Some lawyers also reported receiving an “Invalid SCN number” message despite entering their Supreme Court Number in the format directed by the portal.
While some lawyers were able to access the platform and vote, others said they remained locked out because they could not receive or validate OTPs.
One lawyer complained: “Still not received OTP.”
Another said: “I am still waiting for the OTP.”
Others alleged that the difficulty was affecting confidence in the process, with some claiming, without proof, that manipulation could be going on at the backend.
TheNigeriaLawyer could not independently verify claims of backend manipulation or whether the OTP failures were caused by system overload, browser incompatibility, network challenges, database errors or security measures introduced after the alleged cyberattack.
The ECNBA voting page reviewed by TheNigeriaLawyer also displayed voter support contacts for members experiencing difficulties. The support contacts shown on the portal included Fatima — 0810 451 0797, Adamu — 0916 104 4494, Support — 09161044495, Support — 08144274159, and Pretty — 0903 488 0822.
This indicates that the Committee has now provided contact lines for voter support, although some lawyers had earlier faulted the absence of clearly publicised emergency support channels across branches before voting commenced.
There were also complaints from lawyers using iPhones and Safari browsers.
A message circulating among lawyers advised iPhone users experiencing problems to try voting with an Android phone, Google Chrome, another browser, or a laptop.
“My observation is that members using iPhone may still have issues with voting. iPhone users are hereby advised to try using an Android phone or laptop to vote. I was having issues with my iPhone until I tried using a laptop and it worked at first attempt,” the advisory read.
TheNigeriaLawyer also observed a screenshot showing a Safari browser error which read: “Safari can’t open the page because the network connection was lost.”
TheNigeriaLawyer further observed that after a voter successfully casts a vote and closes the browser, a subsequent attempt to log in again may still allow the voter to access the platform after receiving a fresh OTP.
Some lawyers have questioned why the system would permit post-voting access to the platform, even where voting had already been completed. They argued that such access could raise concerns about the integrity of the process and create room for speculation that votes or voter sessions may be manipulated at the backend.
TheNigeriaLawyer could not independently confirm whether the platform prevents double voting at the database level or whether the post-voting login access is only for confirmation, audit trail, or session management purposes.
Lawyers are therefore calling on the ECNBA and its Election Voting Service Provider to urgently clarify whether the system has safeguards that prevent a voter from casting more than one vote, and why a voter who has already completed voting can still regain access to the portal with another OTP.
The dashboard also showed a slight difference between the number of voters who had voted, 12,070, and the number of total votes shown for the presidential position, 12,031, a difference of 39. TheNigeriaLawyer could not independently confirm whether the difference was due to voters skipping the presidential ballot, pending system synchronisation, incomplete voting sessions, or other technical reasons.
The continuing OTP complaints, browser errors, support requests, post-voting access concerns and questions over the live dashboard have again placed the ECNBA and its Election Voting Service Provider under intense scrutiny.
As of the time of this report, the ECNBA had not issued a further detailed technical explanation on the OTP failures, voter complaints, dashboard timestamps, post-voting login access, or the extent of the earlier alleged cyberattack.
The Committee has, however, maintained that voting will last for 24 hours from the time of commencement and has urged lawyers to use only the official voting portal.
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