NBA 2022 Elections: ECNBA Replies Gadzama’s Agent On Allegations Of Electoral Irregularities

In a letter signed by ECNBA Chair, Prof. Ayodele Akintunde SAN and the Secretary, Mabel Ekeke, the Committee highlighted seven complaints made by Andrew Madaki who served as agent to one of the Presidential Candidates, Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN, in his earlier letter addressed to the Committee on the 16th of July, 2022.

The ECNBA reiterated that the 2022 election of National Officers of the NBA and NBA Representatives to the General Council of the Bar was conducted in strictest accordance with the provisions of the NBA Constitution and with international best practices for digital ballots, and that nearly all the agents who were in the Situation Room on the day of the election signed a declaration form indicating that they were satisfied with the conduct of the elections in the Situation Room as well as the outcome of the election.

Below read the reply

23 July 2022
Mr. Andrew Agbo-Madaki,
Decy4 Technologies
31 P.O.W Nafemi Crescent,
Utako, Abuja.
Dear Sir,

Re: Your Complaints against alleged Fundamental Irregularities and alleged Non-compliance in the NBA Election

We write further to our emails of 18 and 20 July 2022 acknowledging receipt of your letters of the 16 and 20 July 2022 in respect of the above.

As you are aware, the election of National Officers of the NBA and NBA representatives in the General Council of the Bar was held and concluded on 16 July 2022. It is on record that you attended the ECNBA Stakeholders Briefing and Press Conference on Friday 15 July 2022 (Briefing) which started at 6:30 pm on that day and for the better part of the time from the commencement of viewing of election results at 12:00 am when election opened on the 16 July 2022 to the end of voting at 11:59 pm on the same day you were in the situation room with other agents. The only period it was apparent you were absent from the situation room was when you left in the early morning to host a program “The Weekend Show” on AIT from 8:00 am -10:00 am. From the start of voting to 11:00 am on Saturday morning, the Chairman of the ECNBA and some of the Committee members, viewed the election results on the monitor with all agents of the candidates. The Chairman then took a break and came back a few hours later.

When you came back, you attempted to serve the ECNBA’s Secretary, Ms. Mabel Ekeke, with your letter under reference and she advised you to send it electronically to [email protected]. The Chairman of the ECNBA also vividly recalls that during one of the few times that the screen timed out, he announced to the agents that the ICT Service Provider sent a message that he wanted us to wait for 10 minutes before refreshing. All the agents agreed, and you in particular told the Chairman that you were a computer expert and we should not be refreshing as quickly as was being done. After waiting for the 10 minutes and it was refreshed the problem stopped for the next 9 hours or so before another time out incident occurred.

Be that as it may, the ECNBA, the Technical Support Consultant (Finesse Technologies) and the ICT provider (INITS/ElectionBuddy) have carefully reviewed the complaints in your letter and our responses to all your complaints are below:

Please note that the post-election duties of the TSC and ICT service providers are clearly provided for in Section 9 of Part III of Second Schedule of the NBA Constitution and they are expected to each submit a report to the ECNBA after completion of work. Such report shall be made available to Candidates on request and shall be safely stored. It will appear, therefore, that you have decided to pre-empt these all-important post-election activities by making the complaints in your letter under reference and drawing conclusions which, predictably, are grossly unfounded. We will now proceed to address your complaints.

Complaint No.1
That Agents complained about the last-minute briefing which did not avail time for agents and IT experts of candidates to test the voting system and portal.
Agents including yourself who complained that the Briefing of 15 July 2022 was a “last minute briefing which did not avail ample time for the agents and IT experts of the Candidates to test the voting system and portal” appear to be unaware of the ECNBA’s activities or are simply being mischievous. The Briefing of 15 July 2022 was the 3rd of the many meetings/interactions/engagements with the Candidates and (other) stakeholders. The first was held on 2 June 2022, while the second was on 22 June 2022.

During the ECNBA’s Stakeholders Briefing of 2 June 2022, the ECNBA unveiled the Technical Support Consultant (Finesse Integrated Technologies Limited) (TSC)and carefully explained the rigorous process the ECNBA undertook before appointing the TSC. Only two of the companies that submitted proposals in the manner prescribed in its “Request for Proposal For Technical Support Consultant to the ECNBA – Submission Reminder Notice” dated 22 April 2022 were shortlisted. In the considered assessment of the ECNBA, the 3rd company from the proposal it submitted lacked the competence and capacity to act as a Technical Support Consultant and was never shortlisted.

On 22 July 2022, at the ECNBA’s Stakeholders Briefing, INITS Limited & ElectionBuddy (ICT Service Provider) were introduced to Candidates/Stakeholders for interactions and the rigorous process adopted by the ECNBA to select them were explained. It is on record that during the Manifesto Day and Presidential Debate held on Thursday, 7 July 2022, both the ECNBA’s TSC and ICT provider respectively gave detailed presentations about their activities, the entire electoral process and voting platform at the hybrid event. The event was widely publicized, thousands of Members of the Association participated virtually while most Candidates and their supports were physically present.

Specifically, the ICT Service Provider carried out a demonstration of the electronic voting platform. From the time of the unveiling of the ICT Service Provider to the time of the Manifesto Day and Debates until 15 July 2022 at 6:25 pm, your Candidate/Principal failed to request to test the voting platform and portal.

You surely had to have been aware that your request to test the voting system and portal during the press briefing when the election was less than three (3) hours away was obviously neither practicable nor realistic. In fact, in the assessment of the ECNBA, it was a calculated attempt to disrupt the electoral process. The ECNBA was not going to allow it and flatly rejected your request. That aside, your request manifestly showed your ignorance of the constitutional provisions guiding the ECNBA and all stakeholders regarding the electoral process and testing the voting system/platform and portal.

For your information, the duty to test the voting platform to be provided by the service provider is that of ECNBA and is not that of the Candidates or their IT experts (See Section 8 of Part III of the Second Schedule of the NBA Constitution). You can be rest assured that the ECNBA undertook this task as required by the NBA Constitution. Therefore, your allegation that “last minute briefing which did not avail ample time for the agents and IT experts of the candidates to test the voting system and portal” is totally baseless.

ElectionBuddy is a publicly accessible and secure online voting platform which allows anyone to sign up by themselves and run an election in just a few minutes for as many people as are desired. Payment is not required for small elections, allowing for walkthroughs, testing, and evaluation.

This means any agent or IT expert of any Candidate, or any Candidate particularly interested in testing the voting system would have been able to do this without any recourse to the ECNBA or consulting the ECNBA, its Technical Consultant or ICT Service Provider. Payment is not even required, you just need to go to the platform and sign up. The ICT Service Provider noted that over 50 individuals did this check, both before they voted and after voting. Having it this way even offers a high level of independence and an unbiased approach to evaluating the real system extensively. It is therefore shocking the position you have taken in your letter, a position that implies the ECNBA denied access to the ElectionBuddy system when in fact, we could not.

Information regarding the platform which would be used for the election – ElectionBuddy was made public by the ECNBA long before the election.

Complaint No. 2
Agents were excluded from the demo where random people were selected to participate in.
You have alleged that agents “were also excluded from the demo where random people were selected to participate in.” We are happy that you have confirmed by your statement that indeed there was (1) a demo and (2) random people were selected to participate in the demo. Your grouse is that agents were excluded. This allegation is another demonstration of your ignorance of the provisions of the NBA Constitution on the process of test running the ballot system. If you look at Section 7 of Part II of the Second Schedule of the NBA Constitution, there is nowhere in the Constitution that it is required for “agents” to participate in the test run of the balloting system. The ECNBA as it was entitled to do mostly selected random people (from the list of eligible voters) for the process which held on 14 July 2022 hence your allegation of not selecting agents is therefore baseless. In so doing, the ECNBA desired to avoid any appearance of working to a pre-determined outcome because the randomness meant that the people selected could not conspire to provide choreographed feedback on the system.

You are not a lawyer, neither are you on the list of eligible voters. How can the ECNBA invite you to participate in the demo process?

Complaint No. 3
At the briefing, representatives of INITS stated that live results will be available for all voters to see during the elections at the domain: http://go.nigerianbar.org.ng, however at the start of the election, up to this moment, this option was not made available only agents in the situation room had access to the live result.

As shown below the presentation slide being referenced, it was clear that information on the election would be made available on go.nigerianbar.org.ng. The messaging on the slides during the presentation was also clearly written as follows –

“Sit tight and wait for the announcement of the results or visit go.nigerianbar.org.ng for the latest information on the elections.”

This was specifically for viewing the latest information that may be posted or useful for voters and not viewing the real-time results. It is not evident to us where your position on this emanated from.

– Frequently Asked Questions.

– Video Guide of the General Voting Process.

– Important Notices. – Information for Getting Help.

– Information about DND and How to Deactivate this.

– Link to Information about Eligible Voters

After the announcements of results, a link to the results page was also posted on the same website of go.ecnba.ng, leading to the same page used in the situation room for displaying running tallies of voting