Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu has lampooned the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) National Officers Elections, saying it was a “racket.”

In a statement made available to CITY LAWYER, Odinkalu who is increasingly assuming the role of the ‘Conscience of the Bar,’ also berated NBA President, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud SAN for the debacle, saying that “the  outgoing Bar leadership is incredibly tarnished by its role in this messy racket.”

Although Mr. Paul Usoro SAN was declared winner of the presidential election by the Prof. Auwalu Yadudu-led Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA), both Chief Arthur Obi Okafor SAN and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu SAN who contested for the NBA Presidency also rejected the results, alleging that the election was marred by rigging among other vices.

The statement reads:

Concerning What AB Mahmoud & the NBA Have Done

Good morning colleagues.

It is unfortunate colleagues failed to heed the clear facts & evidence of a compromised process in #NBADecides2018. The contestants and their supporters mostly behaved desperate, conferring legitimacy on a process that manifestly lacked it from the get go.

Each campaign appeared to behave in such a way as to suggest they were best placed to benefit from a system configured for pre-determined outcomes.

This was not an election. It was not even a selection. It was a racket and a messed up one at that. Now, they will ask the NBA NEC to make this messed up racket their own & ratify it at the pre-conference NEC. That will be interesting.

This racket is a disgrace. The process was compromised and did not even pretend about it. The outcome lacks legitimacy and the declared winner has procured a compromised non-mandate.

Those who hope or expect that there will be an audit should come off that kind of hallucination – you don’t ask a burglar to investigate the burglary.

The outgoing Bar leadership is incredibly tarnished by its role in this messy racket. Yet, we are unlikely to learn. There are no plaudits to hand out, no congratulations to anyone and no one comes out of this a winner.

My name is Chidi Anselm Odinkalu. I am a City-Zen.

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