OVER 3000 NBA MEMBERS WILL NOT VOTE IN THIS YEARS NBA NATIONAL ELECTION

A stakeholders meeting and press conference in furtherance of the 2022 NBA General elections was conveyed on Friday in Abuja as part of efforts to put finishing touches to grey areas which are instrumental to a successful conduct of the NBA General elections holding July 16, 2022.

The committee members in attendance includes the ECNBA chairman: Mr Ayodele Akintunde, SAN, the Secretary Mrs Mabel Ekeke, Aisha Ado, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu and Mr Basil who is also an IT expert.

After a brief introduction and summary of ECNBA's activities, the chairman called on the Tech consultant to give an enlightenment on the process

Mr Akin Akinwolire, the Tech consultant of Finesse Technology  noted that the payment of bar practicing fees is the first qualification to being a prospective voter and exercising ones franchise .

According to him, this is also followed by the lawyer's update of their membership portal adding that from mid April till the close of verification, some members did not respond to the process

He said that so far only about 59, 393 voters have successfully being verified to participate in the election while the remaining data could not be found, eventhough an opportunity was given for those lawyers to supply these information.

He noted that most of the people affected, were those who probably did a bulk payment of their BPF, adding that whereas those who did their payments personally, had no issues.

"The 3000 people who were not cleared are those who did not provide the requisite data.," he said

Mr Akin also did a brief pictorial/visual presentation to demonstrate some of the challenges with the data presented, and showing data of the 3000 people ( names withheld) with the challenges as enumerated above.

The ECNBA chairman noted that all these 3000 people with such data issues will regrettably be unable to cast their votes, adding that this is largely due to the mode of payment of their bpf which he said he had observed with a particular phone number which paid bpf for about 11 lawyers

He said that in such a situation, that single number had represented the 11 members and thus the data of these members becomes a problem

After the brief presentation by Mr Akin, Mr Femi Taiwo of INITS Election Buddy had his turn to share his screen with the audience to take them through the election process.

Femi said:
"The elections will start today at mid night and you can vote by the link that will be sent to you

"The reason we are using election buddy is because the results will emerge instantly and can be audited.

"There is a help desk by email for those with challenges to send questions for assistance

"There is also a contact Centre with people waiting to receive calls to ensure that any challenges are resolved," he said

He urges all members to go through the various help centres already made available for their assistance if required

Meanwhile, he also assured that the election buddy platform meets the security requirements, adding that it has been tested and trusted based on its history, experiences and successes recorded