ANXIETY, AS ELECTIONBUDDY KEEPS MUM OVER NBA ELECTIONS

ElectionBuddy, the Edmonton, Canada based online voting platform, has kept mum over enquiries on how it plans to ensure transparency in tomorrow’s Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Elections.

CITY LAWYER had yesterday sent an email to the verified email address of the company as well as to the social media handles of some of its ranking officials.

However, while the email was not returned as undelivered and the post to the company’s Messenger handle indicated “seen,” CITY LAWYER did not receive any response from the company at press time.

It is recalled that the NBA Electoral Reform and Audit Committee chaired by current Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) Chairman, Mr. Ayodele Akintunde SAN had in its final report stated that “INITS’ report revealed that during the elections on the ElectionBuddy platform, there were two major challenges. The first challenge was that based on the traffic and requests for the results between the first and second hour of the elections, voters and viewers began experiencing service degradation.”

CITY LAWYER sought to know how the returnee ICT Service Provider would tackle this challenge, moreso as the number of eligible voters has doubled to about 60,000 from 29,632 in year 2020.

Aside from seeking to know the transparency features being put in place by ElectionBuddy for the election, CITY LAWYER also sought to know how the ICT Service Provider plans to deal with alleged data diddling, a charge levied by Mr. Dele Adesina SAN, one of the presidential candidates in the 2020 NBA Elections.

CITY LAWYER equally sought assurances on the safeguards being put in place by ElectionBuddy against hackers, whether there are plans for an independent third-party verification of the electoral process, the specific roles to be played by ElectionBuddy and INITS Limited in relation to their collaboration as joint ICT Service Provider, and whether any framework has been put in place to shore up the high level of undelivered credentials to voters, given that about 14,000 of the 29,632 registered voters were unable to vote during the 2020 Elections due largely to non-receipt of ballots.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that the Electoral Committee may adopt a similar ICT architecture as the one deployed for the controversial 2020 Elections.

CITY LAWYER investigation showed that the same email address through which voters received results of the 2020 NBA Elections was deployed by ECNBA to send out emails on its “Invitation to Manifesto Day and Presidential Debate” and “ECNBA: Test Message on Elections.”

The Electoral Committee has stated that ballots for the 2022 NBA Elections will be received through the same email address. In its latest release on the election, the committee stated that “Your voting link will be sent at 12.00AM GMT+1 on Saturday July 16 to the email address & phone number registered on your profile on the NBA Portal. Please check your Inbox, Spam, Junk and Trash Folders for a message from ecnba@evm.ng for the email.”

Akintunde however told CITY LAWYER that there is no cause for worry, even as he assured that the ECNBA has scheduled its third and final briefing today at 5 pm to answer all queries from stakeholders relating to the eagerly awaited election.

The full text of the Information Release reads:

Distinguished Chairmen, Learned Colleagues

Ahead of the elections on Saturday 16th July, 2022 commencing from 12:00am, please note that there will be a stakeholders meeting& press conference holding today, Friday 15th July, 2022.

Time: 5pm
Venue: 9 Oro Ago Crescent Garki 312, Abuja FCT

For virtual participation, register using the link below: https://bit.ly/3P8Ung9

Kind Regards,
Secretary ECNBA

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‘I’M EAGER TO HEAR FROM YOU,’ ISAAC OGBAH TELLS STAKEHOLDERS

Good afternoon learned silks, distinguished learned seniors and fellow colleagues of this noble legal profession.

My name is Isaac Omuta Ogbah, a candidate for the 3rd Vice President of the NBA in the forthcoming July 16th NBA National elections.

And as a precondition for campaign, all candidates for the various elective positions were mandated to submit their respective CV’s as well as their manifestos to ECNBA for approval and which have been since uploaded into the ECNBA official website.

Kindly use the above link to access all relevant information about myself and manifesto as published by ECNBA, while we look forward to ECNBA publishing other campaign materials that I submitted to them for necessary publication.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding any question, suggestion and enquiry regarding my 3rd Vice President of the NBA candidature. I solicit your support in every way possible towards making me the next 3rd Vice President of the NBA come the 16th day of July, 2022.

I celebrate you now and always. God bless you all.

Isaac Omuta Ogbah

https://www.ecnba.ng/ogbah-isaac-omuta 

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