Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has emerged as the 31st President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), held on Saturday.

He polled a total of 22,342 votes to defeat two other contenders, Messrs Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), Chairman of the NBA Securities Agencies Relations Committee; and Jonathan Taidi, a former General Secretary of the NBA.

Chairman of the NBA Electoral Committee, Ayodele Akintunde (SAN), who announced the results on Sunday, said the total number of people on the final voter register stood at 59,392, while about 3,000 could not vote since they were unable to verify their data.

The elections were conducted through electronic voting.

“A total of 59,392 records were received as people on final voter register, and we were able to upload 59,388 records with four records being invalid contact information.

“A total of 34, 809 votes were cast representing 58.61 per cent of the total number of eligible voters, while 1,314 ballots opened but were not cast,” he said.

He said that Mr Maikyau polled 22,342 votes, representing 64.6 per cent of votes cast for the office of the president, while Mr Gadzama polled 10,842 votes and Mr Taidi polled 1,380.

Other winners at the elections include Linda Bala as NBA First Vice President with a total of 21,717 votes, representing 66.3 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Clement Ugo was elected NBA Second Vice President with a total of 11,377 votes, representing 38.6 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Amanda Demechi-Asagba, President of the African Women Lawyers Association, emerged NBA Third Vice President with a total of 19,602 votes, representing 64.6 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Adesina Adegbite won election for the office of NBA General Secretary with a total of 18,536 votes representing 56.2 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Daniel Kip emerged NBA Assistant General Secretary with a total of 10,071 votes and representing 31.7 per cent votes cast for the office.

Caroline Anze-Bishop was elected NBA Treasurer with a total of 12,012 votes, representing 37.4 percent of votes cast for the office.

Chinyere Obasi emerged NBA Welfare Secretary with a total of 10,452 votes, and representing 32.4 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Habeeb Lawal was elected NBA Publicity Secretary with a total of 17,650 votes and representing 53.5 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Charles Ajiboye won election for the office of NBA Assistant Publicity Secretary with a total 17,811 votes, representing 57.1 per cent of votes cast for the office.

Mr Maikyau succeeds Olumide Akpata, who was elected in 2020, and made history as the only NBA president in the past 10 years who was not a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Mr Maikyau has worked for years as the lawyer to Abubakar Bagudu, the Kebbi governor known for laundering billions for late dictator Sani Abacha.

Mr Maikyau worked with Mr Bagudu’s foreign attorneys to keep Nigerian government from recovering Abacha’s loot. It was unclear if he would continue rendering services to Mr Bagudu in the wake of his election as NBA leader.

(NAN)