By Deborah Onyofufeke
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Yakubu Maikyau, yesterday emerged as the winner of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election making him the 31st President of the association.
Maikyau won the election with a total of 22, 342 votes to defeat his major challenger, Chief J.K Gadzama (SAN), who got 10, 842 votes out of a total of 34, 564 votes that were cast for the position.
The 3rd contender for the NBA’s top position, Taidi Gunu, got 1,380 votes, representing four per cent of a total number of 34, 554 votes that were cast for the position.
Other national officers of the NBA that emerged from the election which started at 12am on Saturday, and ended at 12pm yesterday, were Linda Bala as the 1st Vice President of the association, Clement Ugo (2nd Vice President), and Amanda Demechi-Asagba (3rd Vice President).
They also include Adesina Adegbite (General Secretary), Daniel Kip Ka-Ayli (Assistant General Secretary), Chinyere Obasi (National Welfare Secretary), Habeeb Lawal (National Publicity Secretary), Olawole Ajiboye (Assistant Publicity Secretary), and Anze-Bishop Ladidi (Treasurer).
Twenty lawyers were equally elected as members of the NBA General Council to represent the Western, Eastern, and Northern zones.
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Announcing the election results yesterday, Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the NBA, ECNBA, Ayodele Akintunde (SAN), disclosed that out of a total of 59, 392 records of eligible voters from the NBA database, 59, 388 records were okayed to vote.
Akintunde added that while 1, 346 emails that were sent out to some of the eligible voters bounced back, only 34, 809 lawyers, representing 58. 61 per cent of the membership strength of the association, participated in the election that was conducted electronically.
He noted that some of the common complaints the ECNBA Secretariat received, included the inability of some lawyers to correctly input their Supreme Court Number, SCN, as instructed, wrong/invalid contact information, no voting links, as well as multiple email reminders.
The newly elected NBA President, Maikyau, in his speech, thanked God for his victory while he urged all those that contested the election and lost, to join hands with his team to move the association forward.
Maikyau commended the outgoing President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata (SAN), for his efforts in repositioning the association.
While calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to understudy the technology-driven electoral system of the NBA, he said there was a need for the electoral body to leverage technology in such a way that the electorate across the federation could cast their votes from the comfort of their homes as was done by the NBA in its election which he described as free, fair and credible.
Maikyau said the NBA under his leadership, would continue to speak truth to power and do all within its mandate to promote the rule of law and protect human rights in the country.
On his part, the outgoing President of the NBA, Akpata, while commending the members of the NBA electoral committee, urged those that lost at the poll to accept the results in good faith and join hands to move the association forward.
Akpata further revealed that ahead of the 2023 general elections, he said the NBA has mandated its public interest litigation committee to approach the INEC to verify an allegation that it allowed the substitution of names of candidates that did not participate in the primary election of their political parties.
“We will go and find out how true the allegation is and take it up from there”, he added, just as he commended the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, describing him as “our member that has stood out as the lone voice of reason.”
