*Demands Full Server Logs and Backend Audit Alleges Pre-Programming in NBA Election Petition
Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, has filed a formal election petition before the Nigerian Bar Association National Officers Election Appeal Committee holden at Abuja, challenging the declaration of Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, as winner of the July 18, 2026, election to the office of President of the Nigerian Bar Association, on the ground that the election “was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association 2015, as amended, and with the guidelines issued by the ECNBA.”
The petition names three respondents: the Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association as 1st Respondent, the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association as 2nd Respondent, and Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, as 3rd Respondent.
The petition records the results announced by the ECNBA on July 20, 2026: Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, 12,317 votes (47.18 per cent); Mr Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, 7,934 votes (30.39 per cent); and Mr Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, 5,855 votes (22.43 per cent).
All three had been endorsed as qualified candidates in the ECNBA document titled “2026 Final List of Qualified Candidates for the 2026 NBA General Elections” dated May 28, 2026.
The petition states that the ECNBA published revised guidelines on July 16, 2026, providing that voting would run from 12:00 am on July 18 to 11:59 pm using the website https://ecnba.org.ng/vote/ecnba-ovs-main/.
“At the commencement of elections on 18th July 2026 and within 10 minutes of voting, the website went down and was down for more than seven hours, during which period, every voter was unable to vote,” the petition states.
Akangbe pleads that upon becoming aware of the malfunction he issued a statement calling for the suspension of the elections, addressed to the ECNBA, and gives the Committee notice to produce that statement, dated July 18, 2026, at 2:15 am WAT.
On the cyberattack explanation, the petition is pointed: “It was not until after the 2nd Respondent sent an email at 3:01am on the 18th of July 2026 informing the voters that there was a coordinated cyberattack of the website used for voting. The claim that there was a cyberattack has yet to be verified.”
By a further email at 7:42 am, the ECNBA apologised and advised that voting would recommence at 7:35 am and run for 24 hours from that time.
The petition raises what may be its most serious structural objection.
“Following the malfunction, the 2nd Respondent did not indicate who had previously voted or for whom, before it sent another email advising that it was migrating the voting platform to a different website, www.ecnbaovs.org.ng, which had neither been agreed to nor ratified by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA,” the petition states.
“Further, this migration had not been agreed to by the candidates. It had not been tested by the IT representatives of the candidates, nor had the backend, the hidden part of a computer system, website, or app that users do not see, been verified by the candidates to ascertain and ensure that it was free from any pre-programming in favour of any of the candidates,” it states.
The petition also lists multiple URLs the ECNBA appeared to deploy during the election, including https://ecnba.org.ng/vote/ecnba-ovs-main/, https://ecnba.org.ng/vote/ecnba-ovs-main/php.index, and a mailing-manager click-through link, stating that “the use of different websites confused a majority of the voting members, as details of different websites kept circulating on various social media platforms.”
The petition sets out the allegation of pre-programming in careful terms.
“While the 2nd Respondent chose to allow live viewing of the election results which claimed to be refreshed every 10 minutes, this decision exposed a peculiar trend: the votes allocated to the 3rd Respondent, who was declared the Election winner, exhibited an almost precise geometric progression at the top of each hour throughout the majority of the Election,” the petition states.
Screenshots of the results displayed on www.ecnbaovs.org.ng, taken at various intervals during the election, are pleaded.
“Following an expert analysis and the fact that the Petitioner’s IT personnel was deprived from accessing critical information, he verily believes that the pattern of consistent and predictable vote increases indicated the likely pre-programming of the system. This finding casts serious doubt on the integrity of the Election process,” the petition states.
The basis of that belief is stated directly: “The Petitioner’s belief is premised on the fact that his IT expert was not allowed to observe, real-time, how the voting was progressing from the backend, despite the 2nd Respondent’s agreement to allow all candidates’ IT experts to monitor how the votes were allotted.”
The petition details the OTP failure that has become the central grievance of the election.
It states that under the revised guidelines of July 16, voters required an OTP authenticating their Supreme Court Numbers to be able to vote.
“In the process of the elections, the petitioner began receiving calls from his supporters all over the country, who were eager and ready to vote but to whom the 1st Respondent had failed to send OTPs to authenticate them to vote for him,” the petition states.
It pleads the ECNBA’s own admission: “At 5:35pm on the 18th of July 2026, the 2nd Respondent issued an email advisory to voters experiencing delays in receiving the SMS One-Time Password required to participate in the ongoing 2026 NBA National Elections. The 2nd Respondent admitted to the delay and non-receipt of OTPs in the said email advisory.”
That advisory directed voters who did not receive an OTP within five minutes to log out completely, wait twenty minutes, then log in and request a fresh OTP, warning that repeated requests would further congest the system. It also advised voters to check spam folders, verify registered phone numbers, disable “Do Not Disturb,” and use the OTP immediately as it expires quickly, and it directed complaints to a helpdesk on 08144274159, 09161044495 and 08104510797. It was signed by Aham Ejelam, SAN, Chairman, and Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa, Esq., Secretary.
The petition makes a striking personal averment: “The Petitioner states that, even as a candidate for the election of the office of President of the Nigerian Bar Association, he was unable to vote for himself at the elections on 18th July 2026.”
The petition sets out the arithmetic of disenfranchisement.
“On 10 July 2026, the 1st Respondent published the eligible voters list, and the list indicated that 82,213 members were eligible to vote,” it states.
“Out of the 82,213 eligible voters, only 26,106 were permitted by the 1st Respondent to cast their votes on 18th July 2026, leaving some 56,107 eligible voters disenfranchised,” the petition states.
Akangbe claims a specific number among them: “The Petitioner states that he had over twenty-five thousand voters who were prepared to vote for him but were unable to vote as a result of the failure of the 1st Respondent to send the OTPs to these eligible voters.”
He pleads the causal consequence: “With over twenty-five thousand eligible and willing voters who were prevented from voting because of the non-compliance, if these voters had been allowed to vote, their voting would have substantially affected the eventual results declared on 20th July 2026.”
And on the wider figure: “If the 56,107 voters that were unable to vote were allowed to vote had they received their OTPs timeously in compliance with the 1st Respondent’s revised guidelines of 16 July 2026, that number of votes would have substantially affected the outcome and results of the election one way or another.”
The petition makes a direct allegation of selective delivery.
“On the day of the election, the Petitioner received calls from various supporters who were unable to vote because of the failure of receiving OTPs. The Petitioner states that while he was complaining of the non-delivery of the OTPs, the votes for the 3rd Respondent steadily kept increasing, as if to say the OTPs were deliberately being sent to only her supporters and thereby disenfranchising the Petitioner’s supporters who at the time were willing to vote,” the petition states.
It also pleads the public record: “Members of the Nigerian Bar Association on various lawyer groups on social media openly expressed their frustration at not being able to vote as a result of not having received their OTPs.”
The petition states that the election was advertised to commence at 12:00 am and end at 11:59 pm on Saturday, July 18, per the ECNBA’s email of July 16.
