Olumide Akpata has emerged winner of the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) national elections, becoming the first non Senior Advocate to lead the legal practitioners at the national level in years.
He defeated two other contestants, both of whom are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN).
Akpata won the election with 9,891 votes out of the total 18,256 votes cast, while his closest rival, Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) polled 4,328 votes and Dele Adesina (SAN) netted 3,982 votes.
The election was conducted virtually with registered members of the association logging into the National Officers Election webpage with their Supreme court numbers to cast their votes.
The exercise kicked off at 11a.m on Wednesday, July 29, and ended at 11p.m on Thursday, July 30.
From the beginning of the elections, Akpata maintained the lead with more than 50% of the votes at every quarter-hourly update, till the close of the process at 11p.m on Thursday.
About 29,636 eligible voters were registered, and the election committee sent the voting link to the registered members via emails and sms.
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Other elected officers of the association are John O Aikpokpo-Martins, who emerged as the first vice president with 6,010 votes, beating five other candidates, Adeyemo Kazeem Debo, who emerged 2nd Vice President with 8,794 votes defeating his only rival and Joyce Oduah, who was elected General Secretary.
Others are: Nwadialo Esther Uchenna, Assistant Secretary; Mercy Ijato Agada, treasurer; Edun Olukunle, welfare secretary; Anagor Raphael Nnamdi, Financial Secretary; Nduka Rapuluchukwu Ernest (PhD), Publicity Secretary; and Naza Ferdinand Afam, Assistant Publicity Secretary.
The new NBA President, Olumide Akpata was born on October 7, 1972 and attended the prestigious King’s College in Lagos. He was called to the Nigerian bar on December 15, 1993 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Benin the previous year.
He began his law career under the late Dr Mudiaga Odje (SAN) during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), before joining Templars where he is currently Senior Partner and Head of the Corporate and Commercial practice.
He was elected as Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law (SBL) council in January 2012, and subsequently as the Vice-chairman in August 2014, before emerging as the Chairman in August 2016.
After handing over to his successor, he still sits on the Council of the NBA-SBL and is also the Vice-Chair (West-Africa) of the International Bar Association’s Africa Regional Forum.
