By Austin Oboh
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has sworn in its 30th President, Mr Olumide Akpata.
He was sworn-in at a short ceremony held at the NBA National Secretariat in Abuja.
The ceremony which was streamed live online marked the end of the tenure of the Paul Usoro administration.
Mr. Akpata immediately thanked the past executive for ensuring that the Association was held together after which he swore in members of his executives.
Akpata, a former NBA Chairman, Section on Business Law, won the controversial election on July 31, a situation that did not go down well with some other legal practitioners.
Following his emergence as President-elect of Africa’s largest bar association, one of the presidential candidates, Dele Adesina, asked the Body of Trustees of the association to cancel the polls.
In his 11-page petition to the body, Adesina described the election as “electronic fraud, illegal and unconstitutional.”
He called on the Chairman of NBA Board of Trustees, Olisa Agbakoba to “rise up and save the Association by cancelling the elections and conducting a fresh one.”
The elections were conducted electronically on July 29th to July 30th at the end of which, Akpata beat his major rivals – Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) who scored 4,328 and Adesina (SAN) who scored 3,982 votes respectively.
Although Ajibade accepted the outcome of the election and congratulated the winner of the election, he pointed out that the build-up to the elections and the elections were not been devoid of controversy.
He expressed hope that the challenges of conducting free and fair elections in the association will be resolved.
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