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Romanus Okoye
One of the aspirants for the position of President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at the just concluded elections of the Association, Mr Dele Adesina, SAN, has petitioned the Body of Trustees of NBA to cancel the election and conduct a fresh one, describing the last one as ‘electronic fraud, illegal and unconstitutional’.
In the petition addressed to the Chairman, Board of Trustees of NBA, Adesina, SAN said he was one of the builders of the Association before “some of the god-fathers who are plunging the NBA into avoidable crisis today ever became involved in the affairs of the Association”.
He alleged that the data in the election results monitoring site was programmed to produce a premeditated result and many voters were disenfranchised.
He further stated that: ‘The Election in a most disgraceful, brazen and unconscionable manner was conducted in violation of the clear, express and unambiguous provisions of the Constitution of the NBA (2015 as amended). It was riddled with electronic fraud where the server used for the Election was loaded with predetermined data.
‘It is significant to note that the system used for this election was said to have been registered the very day the election was to start and the MoU was signed on that same day. The appointment of the Service Provider was done solely by the President contrary to the provisions of Section 18 (2) of the NBA Constitution which obligates the ECNBA to engage the Service Provider for the Election. There was no opportunity to interrogate the System before the commencement of the Election in order to determine its vulnerability, security and capacity.
‘The inability to deliver 14,000 notices to prospective voters 13 hours after the commencement of the Election was not only evidence of lack of capacity on the part of the System but also a clear disenfranchisement of these prospective voters. Therefore, the election failed to conform with the minimum principle of fairness and transparency.’
