ionigeria.com Nigerian Newspaper
Mr. Olumide Akpata has been overwhelmingly elected as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He defeated two other contestants who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). With his electoral triumph, Olumide Akpata, who graduated from the University of Benin in 1992 will be the first non-SAN President of the Association in years.
Akpata scored a total of 9,891 votes of the total 18,256 ballots cast, while his closest rival, Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) polled 4,328 votes and Dele Adesina (SAN) polled 3,982 votes.
The election commenced at exactly 11 pm on Wednesday, July 29, and ended at 11 pm on Thursday, July 30.
It was a virtual voting process where registered members of the association logged into the National Officers Election webpage with their Supreme court numbers and cast their votes.
Right from Wednesday night when the elections started, Akpata maintained the lead with more than 50% of the votes at every quarter-hourly update, and he maintained the lead up to the close of the election at 11pm on Thursday.
About 29,636 eligible voters were registered, and the election committee sent the voting link to the registered members via emails and sms.
Olumide Akpata was born on 7 October 1972 and attended King’s College in Lagos. He was called to the Nigerian bar on 15 December 1993 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Benin the previous year.
His law career started under the late Dr Mudiaga Odje (SAN) during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), before joining Templars shortly after it was established.
