The 2026 National Elections of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) suffered a major setback early Saturday following a coordinated cyberattack on its electronic voting platform.

The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) confirmed the attack in a statement, apologising to lawyers for the delay in the commencement of voting.

According to the committee, voting was initially scheduled to commence at 12:00 am WAT on Saturday but was forced to start at 7:35 a.m. after its cybersecurity team contained the breach.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Aham Ejelam (SAN), and Secretary, Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa, the ECNBA said its e-voting platform was subjected to what it termed a deliberate, coordinated, and sustained cyberattack by external actors aimed at disrupting and undermining the electoral process.

The committee said its cybersecurity team, working with the Election Voting Service Provider (EVSP), immediately activated security protocols and countermeasures to repel the attack and restore the integrity of the system.

It clarified that no voting took place while the platform was offline and no votes were compromised.

“The system is expected to be fully restored, and voting will commence immediately upon restoration,” the statement said.

The ECNBA urged eligible voters to access only the official voting portal at www.ecnbaovs.org.ng and to disregard any other links, warning that alternative platforms could be tools of the malicious attack.

It added that all candidates, agents and election observers were present at the designated monitoring centre and that the process remained under its supervision.

The committee reaffirmed its commitment to delivering a free, fair, transparent, and credible election despite the criminal interference.

Meanwhile, several lawyers have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about technical glitches, alleged disenfranchisement and low voter turnout in the ongoing NBA elections 2026.

Legal practitioner @jurist_oriko said he eventually voted but questioned the turnout: “After all the shenanigans, I have just been able to cast my vote.

“Only 17,000 people have voted out of over 82,000 registered voters as at 2:30 p.m. Something is fundamentally wrong.”

Another lawyer, Vanessa Yashim, alleged that the system repeatedly invalidated her Supreme Court Number and that the support lines provided were unreachable.

Similarly, Tobi Olanipekun alleged widespread OTP failures, claiming that many lawyers saw phone numbers that were not theirs displayed on the portal.

“The funniest part is that the fake phone numbers are the same across board,” he wrote.

Some lawyers, however, reported a smooth process after the initial delay. User Josiah noted that issues from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. had been rectified, while Master P said, “The process was seamless for me as of 10:31 a.m.”

Other lawyers were more critical. Joel said the NBA had lost the moral ground to critique public elections, adding, “INEC must be laughing at us now.”

Waliu Taofik accused some lawyers of defending flaws they would ordinarily challenge if committed by INEC.

As of press time, voting was still ongoing, with the ECNBA maintaining that the election would be credible despite the disruption. (Nigerian Tribune)

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