Palpable uncertainty pervaded the legal industry yesterday as the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) failed to issue guidelines on the verification exercise which commences today.

It is recalled that the committee had in its revised election time-table stated that fresh verification exercise will commence today and end on Saturday. The notice had stated: “Verification and data upgrade of voters shall take place on Thursday 26th, Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July, 2018.”

CITY LAWYER gathered that while many lawyers have been scavenging for information on various social media platforms on the new verification exercise, others took it upon themselves to break down the ECNBA time-table into simplified forms.

Although it was expected that the committee would have released the modalities for the conduct of the fresh verification on the eve of the exercise, this has not happened, leading to disquiet among lawyers. There are fears that the delay in releasing the guidelines and the new verification portal may abridge the time allotted for the exercise.

It was unclear at press time why the electoral committee failed to release the guidelines, even as the original platform operated by CHAMS Plc https://nbaelectionprofileupdate.com.ng has become dysfunctional.

It is recalled that though ECNBA had initially planned to “clean up” the much lampooned CHAMS verification register, the candidates vowed not to have anything to do with the list. This led the ECNBA to scrap the previous exercise.

The committee has also hired CRENET TechLabs Limited as its ICT Partner to anchor the verification exercise.
A representative of one of the presidential candidates who participated in the initial meeting with ECNBA and its ICT partners had said: “With CHAMS involvement in determining any eligible voter being totally eliminated, I can confidently say the ground is now level.”

The modified time-table dated July 23, 2018 and signed by ECNBA Secretary, Mr. Bolaji Agoro read: “For effective check and balance and credibility of the election, the electoral processes of pre-election, election and post-election shall be disaggregated and handled by separate entities.”

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