Ojukwu, Okafor Kick as Usoro Wins NBA Presidency

The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) yesterday declared a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Paul Usoro, winner of NBA presidential election.

However, two other Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), Prof. Ernest Ojukwu and Chief Arthur Obi Okafor who contested the NBA presidency, have rejected the result of the election.

The election was held by electronic voting from Saturday to Sunday but the result was announced in the early hours of yesterday.

Usoro polled 4,509 votes to beat Okafor, who scored 4,423 votes and Ojukwu, who got 3,313 votes.

Stanley Chidozie won the race for First Vice President with 6,188 votes, while Dada Olayemi was elected Second Vice President with 4,242 votes.

Taidi Gunu won the post of General Secretary with 3,574 votes, beating Mobolaji Idris who polled 1,993 votes and Balogun Oyeyemi who got 1,630 votes.

Okafor and Ojukwu have, however, faulted the result, insisting that the election was rigged.

In a letter to the outgoing NBA president, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), Okafor rejected the result and called for a post-election audit.

He said: “I participated in the aforesaid election to conclusion. It is in my candid view that the election was rigged by which I was denied victory.

“In the course of the election, my team made complaints of obvious malpractices, including harvesting of voters’ details using some funny email domains. These complaints were not attended to. “I do hereby reject the result of the elections. Whilst considering various options open to me, I call for a participatory post-election audit of both the verification process and voting.”

Ojukwu, a former Law School Deputy Director-General, claimed that he contested against corruption, rigging and a skewed process, but said he would not challenge the result.