Mr Yakubu Maikyau, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN has emerged as the new president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He succeeds Mr Olumide Akpata who was elected on 28 August 2020.
At the just concluded elections, Maikyau polled 22,342 votes to defeat his major opponent, Joe-Kyari Gadzama, also a SAN, who polled just 10,842 votes, while Taidi Gunu polled 380 votes, representing four per cent of the total 34,554 votes that were tallied for the position. This year’s election commenced at midday on Saturday and ended at midnight.
Equally elected to the NBA Executive Committee are Adesina Adegbite as General Secretary, while Daniel Ka-Ayli is the Assistant General Secretary. Chinyere Obasi was elected as National Welfare Secretary, Habeeb Lawal as the National Publicity Secretary, Olawole Ajiboye as the Assistant Publicity Secretary and Anze-Bishop Ladidi as the Treasurer.
Linda Bala is the first Vice President; Clement Ugo is second Vice President and Amanda Demechi-Asagba emerged the third Vice President. The association also elected 20 members to the NBA General Council to represent the Western, Eastern and Northern zones of lawyers in the country.
Only 34,809 lawyers, representing 58.61 per cent of the membership strength of the association, took part in the election that was conducted electronically. In his victory speech, Maikyau sought the cooperation of all contenders in the election for the greater good of lawyers in Nigeria. He lauded Akpata for his quality leadership of the NBA in the last two years.
Maikyau promised that during his tenure, the NBA would speak truth to power, promote the rule of law and protect human rights in the country. On the other hand, the outgoing president, Akpata commended the members of the NBA electoral committee for their hard work to ensure the success of the election. He advised those that lost in the election to accept the results in good faith in the overall interest of the association.
