The controversy surrounding the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association national election has taken a new turn after a lawyers’ association asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the swearing-in of President-elect Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, and other newly elected national officers.
The Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners filed the request as additional reliefs in a pending suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1471/2026, instituted against the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Nigerian Bar Association.
Badejo-Okusanya emerged victorious in the presidential contest after polling 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of the 26,106 votes recorded for the position.
Her opponents, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, and Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, received 7,934 and 5,855 votes respectively.
The President-elect is expected to succeed the outgoing NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, during the Association’s Annual General Conference scheduled to commence on August 21, 2026.
The election was conducted electronically on July 18 and concluded after technical difficulties and disruptions affected the voting process.
In the fresh reliefs filed on July 20, ALDRAP asked the court to restrain the NBA, its agents, privies, National Executive Committee and anyone acting through the Association from inaugurating Badejo-Okusanya or any other person elected into a national office.
The association requested an interim and perpetual injunction stopping the inauguration until the final determination of the suit or until the court makes a further order.
It also asked the court to direct that the existing leadership arrangement within the NBA be maintained pending the determination of the case.
The application has not been heard, and the court has not issued any order preventing Badejo-Okusanya or the other elected officers from assuming office.
ALDRAP is also seeking to join Badejo-Okusanya and several other persons and organisations as necessary parties to the pending action.
Those proposed to be joined include Akinboro, Akangbe, Amnesty International’s Nigerian office or its representative, Yiaga Africa and the Transition Monitoring Group.
The association maintained that the proposed parties were necessary for the effective and complete determination of the controversies arising from the election and the planned leadership transition.
In its original action, ALDRAP had asked the court to restrain the Attorney-General of the Federation from interfering in the NBA election.
It also sought a declaration that neither the Attorney-General nor the NBA had the authority to interfere with the conferment of the Senior Counsel of Nigeria rank introduced by the association as an alternative professional distinction for lawyers who do not primarily engage in courtroom advocacy.
The title, commonly described as “Blue Silk,” has generated controversy within the legal profession, with the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee maintaining that the award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria remains governed by existing legal and regulatory procedures.
ALDRAP had additionally asked the Federal High Court to appoint the Nigerian Law Society and the Law Society of Lesotho as independent observers for the NBA election.
In support of its latest application, the association argued that the pending suit challenges the validity, legality and constitutionality of the processes leading to the 2026 election.
It listed alleged voter disenfranchisement, technical failures involving the electronic voting platform and claimed non-compliance with the timetable approved by the NBA National Executive Council among the issues requiring judicial determination.
The association also raised questions about the alleged applicability of the constitutional principles contained in Section 134(2) of the 1999 Constitution to the NBA presidential contest.
Section 134(2) deals with the requirements for the election of Nigeria’s president. The court has not determined whether the provision applies to an internal election conducted by a professional association.
ALDRAP’s Administrative Secretary, Jesse Williams Amuga, also questioned the absence of publicly available reports from organisations invited to observe the election.
Amuga argued that the failure of the domestic and international observers to issue reports shortly after the exercise created further concerns about the electronic voting system used by the NBA and the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association.
He claimed that none of the observers had publicly corroborated the claims by the NBA leadership and ECNBA concerning the integrity of the electronic voting infrastructure deployed for the election.
“Twenty-four hours after the alleged NBA elections, not a single international or domestic election observer has released any report to corroborate their observations of the e-voting infrastructure that both the NBA President and the ECNBA alleged that they deployed,” he said.
Amuga further alleged that Amnesty International, Yiaga Africa and the Transition Monitoring Group were reluctant to speak about the exercise because of concerns about their reputations.
“If no independent observers are commenting on the alleged NBA elections, that speaks volumes,” he added.
No response from the proposed observer organisations was included in the application, and their failure to issue an immediate public report does not by itself establish that the election was invalid.
The NBA and the other affected parties are also yet to formally respond to the additional reliefs sought by ALDRAP.
Unless the Federal High Court grants the requested injunction or issues another restraining order, the filing of the application alone does not automatically stop the inauguration of Badejo-Okusanya and the newly elected national officers.
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