Ethnic Crisis Hits NBA As Yoruba Group Takes Stand

By Chuks Ekpeneru

There were fears on Wednesday that the fallout from the recent Nigerian Bar Association elections was turning into an ethnic crisis after the South-West Lawyers’ Forum, popularly known as Egbe Amofin took position against the outcome of the election.

The group in a communiqué claimed that the election was manipulated with the insertion of what it described as 4,000 ‘ghost voters’ into the voters’ register.

The presidential election was between three candidates, Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, Dele Adesina SAN, who are both Yoruba and Olumide Akpata who is Bini.

Akpata who became the first lawyer from the outer bar to win the NBA presidential election since Alao Aka-Bashorun in the eighties was believed to have won on the wave of support from young lawyers.

He polled 9,891 votes of the total 18,256 ballots cast, while his closest rival, Ajibade (SAN) polled 4,328 votes and Adesina (SAN) polled 3,982 votes.

However, Adesina has alleged that the votes were padded.

His call has now been elevated by Southwest lawyers through Egbe Amofin.

The group in a communiqué signed by chairman of its Steering Committee, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), and Secretary, Dr Oluwole Akintayo, Egbe Amofin particularly faulted the accreditation of an International Diaspora Branch.

It alleged the “creation of an International Diaspora Branch of the NBA for voting – a phenomenon that is strange and unknown to the NBA constitution.”

Egbe Amofin disagreed with the return of Akpata as the winner of the election by the Electoral Committee of the NBA saying it was unlawful and violated the NBA constitution, given the alleged irregularities.

The Egbe Amofin said, “Over 4000 ‘voters’ appeared on the emergency voters’ list used for the election and these ghost voters have no identifiable branches or are not linked or traceable to any branch.”

The Egbe Amofin added that as of the time the electronic election ended at 11pm last Thursday, not less than 13,000 of the 29,636 lawyers accredited had not voted.

It said with the alleged huge unlawful disenfranchisement of voters, even the Independent National Electoral Committee, which was randomly criticised, would not have declared any candidate winner the way the ECNBA did.

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