For the first time in more than three decades, a member of the outer bar has floored two Senior Advocates of Nigeria to be elected as President of the NBA.
Olumide Akpata, an expert in corporate and commercial law, defeated Babatunde Ajibade and Julius Adesina, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria in the election concluded on Thursday, July 30.
Akpata will succeed Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN), an Akwa Ibom son.
He was leading with 54.8% of the votes ahead of two senior advocates, Babatunde Ajibade and Julius Adesina. So far, more than 50% of the estimated 29,636 eligible voters had cast their ballot.
Alao Aka-Bashorun, widely regarded as one of the finest Presidents of the Bar who served between 1987 to 1989 during the repressive military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, was not a senior advocate.
Other lawyers had used his example as a campaign weapon to wrest the leadership of the Association from the privileged class of senior advocates
The NBA elections are being conducted online where accredited members voted electronically, amid controversy of lack of transparency by notable activist lawyers like Chidi Odinkalu who accused the electoral committee of managing a rigged process
