Newly elected Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch, Mr. Bayo Akinlade has accused the association of being “corrupt, rotten and ineffective.”

In a statement released today, Akinlade, who also doubles as the Convener of Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary (FIACIJ) also reviewed the ongoing NBA voter verification exercise and scored it low.

Below is the full text of the statement:

NBA National Election: A Colossal Waste of Time, Energy and Resources

It is embarrassing to think that lawyers will wake up in the wee hours of the morning to undertake a seemingly effortlessly task of verifying ones details. It is further embarrassing when we spend a lot of time trying to verify only to be given multi error messages.

How ridiculous is it for a chairman of a branch to receive a message that his name could not be found or no records match his SCN?

The national NBA is nothing short of a complete disappointment. We had ample time to perfect this universal suffrage idea. With all the money we spend travelling and organizing conferences we could not invest in simple data gathering and IT support mechanisms.

What infuriates me the most is when I read somewhere that it is the fault of the branches because they didn’t accurately compile list of eligible voters.

This brings me to a possible solution to this electronic voting scam election scheme. Since the national relies heavily on a list that comes from branches let us device a means where each branch becomes a polling station and each vote is cast at the branch level with each candidate having his supporter ensure it is not rigged [to say the least, it is even embarrassing to think that such an election which is for service should be rigged but the fact remains NBA IS CORRUPT, ROTTEN AND COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE].

While there still exist a pending suit against the elections in 2016 it is very likely that there will be another suit if this elections should proceed without everyone who are eligible to vote being given a fair opportunity to cast their votes without being frustrated by the electronic system.

After all the time and efforts and money spent by candidates and their supporters, it would be sad if we don’t get this right.

BAYO Akinlade Esq.

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