Olumide Akpata is set to become the next president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA after winning the 2020 elections with 1,002 votes representing 54.8% of the vote cast to defeat 2 senior advocates, Babatunde Ajibade who polled 808 votes and Julius Adesina who scored 679 votes
It is the first time in over 3 decades that the President of the NBA will be emerging from the outer bar, and not among the rank of senior advocates.
Alao Aka-Bashorun, widely regarded as one of finest President of the Bar who served between 1987 to 1989 during the repressive military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, was not a senior advocate.
Other lawyers had used his example as a campaign weapon to wrest the leadership of the Association from the privileged class of senior advocates.
The NBA election was conducted online where accredited members voted electronically, amid controversy of lack of transparency by notable activist lawyers like Chidi Odinkalu who accused the electoral committee of managing a rigged process.
Akpata is an expert in corporate and commercial law and is set to take over from Paul Usoro next month.