Mr Olumide Akpata, the young Nigerian Lawyer with a towering following among the ranks of young lawyers across Nigeria, has emerged winner of the presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) national elections, after defeating two of his rivals and fellow contestants who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). With this historic victory, Akpata has etched his name in history as NBA’s first non-SAN President in several years.
Akpata, who is popularly called Olu among friends, peers and admirers polled a total of 9,891 votes out of the total 18,256 ballots cast to defeat his fellow contestants. His closest rival, Mr Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) polled 4,328 votes while Mr Dele Adesina (SAN) polled 3,982 votes. The outcome of the NBA election is generally regarded as a huge revolt by the growing ranks of young lawyers who feel concerned about what they regard as the monopolistic politics of the NBA by the ranks of Senior Advocates of Nigeria(SAN).
Said an analyst: ‘’ The NBA election commenced at exactly 11 am on Wednesday, July 29, and ended at 11 pm on Thursday, July 30. It was a virtual voting process where registered members of the association logged into the National Officers Election webpage with their Supreme court numbers and cast their votes.
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Right from Wednesday night when the NBA elections started, Akpata maintained the lead with more than 50% of the votes at every quarter-hourly update, and he maintained the lead up to the close of the election at 11pm on Thursday.
About 29,636 eligible voters were registered, and the election committee sent the voting link to the registered members via emails and sms . ’’
Who Is Olu Akpata?
Mr Olumide Akpata was born on 7 October 1972 into the famous Akpata family. He schooled at the famous King’s College in Lagos, and was subsequently called to the Nigerian bar on 15 December 1993 following acquisition of his LLB degree from the University of Benin in 1992.
Young Olu began his legal career at the Law firm of late Dr Mudiaga Odje (SAN) while he was serving his mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Upon completion of his NYSC, youthful Akpata enlisted in the Law firm known as Templars.
It is on record that Olumide Akpata has spent well over twenty years with Templars. In recognition of his exemplary expertise, team-work and hard-work, he was made Senior Partner and Head of the Corporate and Commercial Department at Templars. Olu’s area of specialty include Nigerian Corporate and Commercial Law, Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets, Corporate Law, Labour and Employment, Media entertainment, technology, regulatory compliance, among others.
Akpata has been Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Business Law (SBL) section council since 2012. He was later elected as the Vice-chairman in August 2014, and then the substantive Chairman in 2016.
Akpata who is also the Vice-Chair (West-Africa) of the International Bar Association’s Africa Regional Forum comes to his new role with great dynamism, youthful energy, expertise, knowledge and great foresight.
Other Winners…
Out of six candidates, John O Aikpokpo-Martins emerged as the first vice president with 6,010 votes, and Adeyemo Kazeem Debo emerged 2nd Vice President with 8,794 votes defeating his only contender.
Others include Oduah Joyce, General Secretary; Nwadialo Esther Uchenna, Assistant Secretary; Mercy Ijato Agada, treasurer; and Edun Olukunle, welfare secretary, Anagor Raphael Nnamdi, Financial Secretary; Nduka Rapuluchukwu Ernest (PhD) Publicity Secretary and Naza Ferdinand Afam, Assistant Publicity Secretary
