Members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Branch are currently voting to elect the Executive Committee that will lead the about 15,000-member influential branch for the next two years.

As promised by the Electoral Committee led by Mr. Kelechi Obi SAN, the election kicked off at 5 am today. However, ballots were sent to eligible voters as early as 11:24 pm yesterday though voting did not commence until 5 am.

CITY LAWYER investigation shows that while most voters received their ballots without hitches, some voters claimed that they had not received their ballots as at about 9:42 am today.

A prospective voter wrote on one of the social media platforms monitored by CITY LAWYER: “What’s happening, please? I didn’t get the link please?”

Responding, another lawyer wrote: “Many lawyers are yet to get voting links. Me inclusive. People are complaining.”

Assuring them that the issue would be resolved, another commentator wrote: “You will soon get it ma. As long as you complain by report to the email. My boss didn’t get it since morning but just got it this afternoon after we sent a complaint.”

In a rather curious twist, one commentator noted that the ballot was sent to a dormant email, saying: “Check all your emails. I had the same issue before now. All my notifications were sent to my gmail. So when I didn’t see it I just decided to check my yahoo, which I hardly use for Official stuffs … and the link was there … still don’t know how they got that mail. So check all your emails.”

Eligible voters were also advised to send email to the Secretary of the Electoral Committee, Carolynda Anyanwu. A similar message was also sent to eligible voters by the service provider, the Canada-based VOTE-NOW, which wrote: “If you have questions about the election process, please contact Carolynda Anyanwu (info@nbalagoselections.com.ng). For technical issues, reply to this email for support@vote-now.com.”

It was unclear whether the total votes garnered by candidates were being shown to election monitors in the Situation Room set up by the Electoral Committee, even as anxiety gripped supporters on the fate of their candidates.

However, while some supporters were gleefully showing off their ballots in solidarity with their candidates, others urged them to focus on getting out the votes by calling colleagues to encourage them to vote.

Meanwhile, the electoral umpire had dismissed the allegation of padding of the voters’ list as baseless and unfounded.

CITY LAWYER recalls that one of the chairmanship candidates, ‘Nonso Azih, had also petitioned the Electoral Committee over possible disenfranchisement of some eligible voters. However, Obi told CITY LAWYER that all genuine complaints had been treated.

Aside from the chairmanship race which promises to be very fierce, the post of Secretary has gone to Kelechukwu Uzoka even before opening of the ballot. This is also true of the positions of Vice Chairman (James Olaseni Sonde), Rita Nwokocha (Social Secretary), Ngozi Victor (Assistant Secretary), Bennita Olejeme (Welfare), and Igwebuike Michael Ikechukwu (Provost). There is no candidate for the position of Financial Secretary, as CITY LAWYER gathered that the three aspirants that pitched for the position were disqualified by the Electoral Committee.

However, Oliver Omoredia is dueling with returnee candidate, Bayo Olusanya for the post of Publicity Secretary while Jacob Dipo Famodimu and Ogechi Olisa-Mokelu are slugging it out for the post of Treasurer.

The election ends by 6 pm today. It was unclear at press time whether an audit will be conducted before release of the results.

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