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Says no credible election can emerge from the process
The 2026 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) National Elections suffered a fresh setback in the early hours of Saturday after one of the presidential candidates, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, formally demanded the immediate suspension and postponement of the electoral process, citing what he described as a “catastrophic structural and technical collapse” of the electronic voting system.
In a strongly-worded four-page emergency protest addressed to the Chairman and members of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), Akangbe said the election had become fundamentally compromised barely two hours after voting was scheduled to commence at midnight on Saturday, July 18, 2026.
The Senior Advocate argued that the cumulative effect of the alleged technical failures had rendered the continuation of the election indefensible and incapable of producing a credible outcome.
Akangbe alleged that as of about 2:09 a.m., the official electronic voting portal had become inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the approximately 82,000 accredited voters, with users reportedly encountering authentication failures, loading errors and repeated time-outs.
According to him, the inability of eligible voters to access the platform effectively meant that the election had not genuinely commenced.
He further expressed concern over reports that the ECNBA had allegedly indicated through informal channels that votes already cast before the system failure would be cancelled before the process restarted.
The presidential candidate questioned how votes could have been recorded when the portal was allegedly inaccessible to most voters, warning that such circumstances could fuel concerns over the integrity of the database and the possibility of unauthorized access.
He maintained that once the platform failed in the manner alleged, no subsequent restart could restore confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.
Akangbe also accused the electoral committee of departing from its own revised electronic voting guidelines regarding voter authentication.
He noted that the ECNBA had only a day earlier announced that One-Time Passwords (OTPs) would be delivered strictly through registered mobile phone numbers via SMS in order to address concerns surrounding email authentication.
However, he claimed that several voters reported receiving authentication codes through email rather than SMS after voting commenced.
Describing the development as a fundamental breach of the committee’s own published security framework, Akangbe argued that every vote authenticated through email under those circumstances would be inconsistent with the revised guidelines.
He recalled previous controversies surrounding NBA electronic elections and contended that the latest development risked reintroducing vulnerabilities which the revised authentication system was specifically designed to eliminate.
Another issue raised by the presidential hopeful relates to the alleged design of the electronic ballot.
According to Akangbe, reports reaching his campaign indicated that only one presidential candidate’s photograph appeared on the electronic ballot interface, while the photographs of the other cleared candidates—including his own—were either absent or failed to display.
He argued that in an electronic election, the visual presentation of candidates forms part of the ballot itself and must remain neutral and identical for every contestant.
Akangbe contended that any interface displaying one candidate’s photograph while omitting others could create an unintended presentation advantage capable of undermining confidence in the fairness of the election.
He further questioned how such an alleged defect escaped earlier testing, mock voting exercises and security audits reportedly conducted before election day.
On the strength of the alleged irregularities, the Senior Advocate called on the ECNBA to immediately halt the election and take the voting portal offline.
He also requested that every vote cast, authentication log, OTP delivery record and access log generated from the commencement of voting until suspension be preserved for forensic examination.
In addition, Akangbe urged the committee to commission an independent technical audit of the electronic voting platform, database, authentication mechanism and ballot interface by a reputable third-party firm with no relationship to the ECNBA or its service providers.
He further demanded that the committee provide a written explanation to NBA members on how the alleged failures occurred despite prior testing and certification of the platform before fixing a fresh date for the election.
Akangbe warned that proceeding with the election under the prevailing circumstances could plunge the Nigerian Bar Association into another prolonged legitimacy crisis.
He argued that any winner produced from what he described as a collapsed portal, compromised authentication system and defective ballot interface would struggle to command the confidence of the legal profession.
The presidential candidate urged the ECNBA to suspend the process, investigate the complaints, rectify the identified issues and restore confidence before conducting another election.
Copies of the protest were also addressed to the NBA President, the General Secretary, all presidential candidates, past NBA Presidents, the Chairman of the Body of Benchers and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
As of the time of filing this report, the ECNBA had not issued an official response to the allegations contained in Akangbe’s protest.
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