Cyberattack Disrupts NBA 2026 Election

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…Adeyanju Asks INEC To Emulate Conduct Of NBA Poll

ABUJA – The Electoral Commit­tee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), on Saturday, apologised over the delay in commencing voting in the 2026 NBA National Elections, attributing the disrup­tion to a coordinated cyberattack on its electronic voting platform.

In a statement issued early Saturday, the committee said voting, initially scheduled to commence at 12 am. WAT, would now begin at 7.35 a.m., following efforts to restore the system’s in­tegrity.

The ECNBA said its e-vot­ing platform was subjected to “a deliberate, coordinated, and sustained cyberattack by exter­nal actors aimed at disrupting and undermining the electoral process.”

According to the committee, its cybersecurity team, working with the Election Voting Service Provider (EVSP), immediately activated security protocols and counter measures to repel the at­tack, neutralise the threat and restore the platform.

It stressed that no voting had taken place and that no votes were accepted while the plat­form was offline.

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

The ECNBA urged eligible voters to await further official communication before attempt­ing to access the voting portal.

It warned members to dis­regard any other links or plat­forms claiming to offer alterna­tive voting channels, describing them as possible tools of the malicious attack.

The committee also con­firmed that all candidates, agents and observers were pres­ent at the designated monitoring centre and that the electoral pro­cess remained under its super­vision.

While apologising for the delay, the ECNBA reaffirmed its commitment to conducting a free, fair, transparent and credible election despite what it described as criminal inter­ference.

The statement was signed by the Chairman of the ECN­BA, Aham Ejelam (SAN), and the Secretary, Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa, respectively.

Meanwhile, constitutional and human rights lawyer and activist, Deji Adeyanju, on Satur­day, challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to draw practical lessons from the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national election.

He described the exercise as proof that secure, credible electronic voting is possible in Nigeria.

Adeyanju, who spoke after casting his vote in the NBA election, applauded the Nigeri­an Bar Association’s Electoral Committee (ECNBA) for what he described as a seamless, trans­parent and efficient electronic voting process.

According to him, the entire process of registration, verifi­cation and voting took him less than two minutes.

He said the ECNBA success­fully deployed a secure voting system that relied on each law­yer’s unique Supreme Court enrolment number and a One- Time Password (OTP) verifica­tion process, making the election both fast and credible.