Adams Myshelia Makarios wanted only two things: Payment for his company’s services to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the completion of the contract he was awarded. But Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, the NBA president, had other plans, and what began as cordial business relations between Makarios’ company, Webitscure Technologies and Innovations Ltd., and the NBA, degenerated into hostile relations.

Presently, President Maikyau has replaced Webitscure Technologies with Giant Beats Resources, an IT consultancy firm owned by Solomon Magaji, his nephew, while withholding payment to Webitscure for its services.

NBA’s contract with Magaji’s Giant Beats Resources

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Webitscure Technologies first engaged with the NBA during the Olumide Akpata-led administration to provide cybersecurity assessment and technology innovation services that aided the NBA’s widely acclaimed electronic elections.

Their contract was to expire alongside Akpata’s tenure, but Maikyau, impressed with the results of the partnership, decided to retain them.

Under Maikyau, Webitscure was to continue to provide technology innovation services and work process automation for the NBA and, via an extended contract, automate the collection and processing of the 2023 annual bar practising fee (BPF).

This they accomplished by 70 percent, after which they demanded payment for their services. However, instead of a paycheck, the NBA president rewarded Webitscure’s CEO, Makarios, with threats and replaced Webitscure with his nephew, Solomon Magaji.

WHO IS SOLOMON MAGAJI AND WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN THE NBA?

President Maikyau introduced Magaji to Webitscure as his nephew at his inaugural retreat in September 2022.

Subsequently, Magaji joined the president and the NBA’s IT team in meetings with Webitscure and was also included in a WhatsApp group with all stakeholders, where they shared critical cybersecurity infrastructure details of the NBA website.

As they continued to interface physically and online with Magaji however, it became unclear what his role was, as all he would do was grandstand and badger Webitscure’s work and integrity, often without basis, the company’s CEO explained.

No one knew in what capacity Magaji attended those meetings. He was not a member of the NBA, neither was he a part of the NBA’s IT team, and no one could question it.

“You know if the president introduces you to someone as his nephew, I can’t start questioning his presence in the meetings. We are just contracted,” Makarios told FIJ.

Magaji unilaterally changed the passwords of the payment system that Webitscure set up for the collection of BPF, alongside passwords to the official NBA domain and other critical assets.

“We reported to the president without a response in several letters up until the president paid 35% of the total invoiced sum for the platform on the 27th of March 2023 and demanded that we hand over the platform to his nephew, which we declined insisting on receiving full payments of our fees, completing the project in line with the scope of work and then handing over.”

MAIKAYAU V. WEBITSCURE TECHNOLOGIES

It was because of Webitscure’s insistence of full payment for their services and completion of their contract that the NBA president would accuse them of blackmail and non-cooperation:

1. In response to the former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu’s resignation from the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) on June 14:
   • “Please note that the Nigerian Bar Association, which I am privileged to lead at this time and of which you are member, remains a responsible organisation and will always honour its financial and contractual obligations.
   • “I will however not allow any person or group of persons to stampede us or in any way blackmail us into compromising our internal mechanisms, put in place for verifying claims or requests before payments are made. Our commonwealth, which I hold in trust, will to the best of our ability be administered in the best interest of the Association.”
2. In response to Webitscure’s notice of hand-over/transfer of database of NBA members and service portals:
   • “You will recall that the president had called for a meeting between your representatives and himself which request was inexplicably neglected, refused and discountenanced.
   • “I specifically requested for the release of database of our members who had paid Bar Practising Fees as at 31st March 2023, to enable the association process the remittances payable to the branches.
   • “I followed up with firm assurance that your claims as per your outstanding fees shall be reviewed vis-a-vis job performance and service delivered so far…
   • “Unfortunately, your team categorically declined the request and unlawfully held on to the data of over sixty thousand Nigerian lawyers…
   • “The Nigerian Bar Association has been sabotaged and embarrassed by your continuous act of withholding of its database and IT infrastructure without lawful authority.”
3. In a meeting with chairman of state NBA branches held on August 8:
   • “The company tried to blackmail the NBA into paying him[sic] money without an audit of work done. The NBA remained resolute that it would not be blackmailed into making any more payments to him especially after making some earlier payments to him that the Association believed he had not earned earlier in the onset of administration.
   • “The consultant has refused to submit its work for audit and proceeded to withhold the data of the association and systematically shut down key functionalities of the NBA’s website, including the BPF payment platforms.
   • “This withholding of Association data such as that showing the details of branches and their specific payments for purposes of ascertaining remittance of 10% payments of BPF is what was delaying the payment of the 10% remittance to the Branches.”

Previous letters and messages addressed to the NBA president, however, state otherwise.

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In the first case, for instance, Odinkalu had written in his resignation letter that he did not trust the NBA to deliver a credible election in 2024 because of the NBA’s refusal to honour its contractual obligations to its IT consultants, Webitscure, which compromised the data of lawyers, and expressed concern over the president’s response to the ECNBA when inquiries were made to that effect.

In the second case, a trail of emails and phone calls to the president refuted the president’s accusations that Webitscure illegally withheld the data of over 60,000 lawyers and ignored a call to remedy the issues at hand.

Webitscure’s response to the NBA’s accusations

And in the most recent case, where the president accused Webitscure of blackmailing the NBA into paying without first conducting an audit of their services, email and WhatsApp chat trails show that Webitscure first requested an audit of the NBA server after identifying the president’s nephew as the likely perpetrator of an attack on the NBA domain.

A letter from Webitscure addressed to the NBA, requesting a review of the audit report of their investigation and full payment of their services

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AN ATTACK ON THE NBA DOMAIN

On March 31, the NBA website suffered an attack, and exactly a minute after the attack occurred, Magaji notified the team via WhatsApp that the site was down. According to Makarios, this raised suspicions because only two people should have been privy to the information at the time: the host service provider and the client, whom the service provider immediately notified by email when it occurred.

It did not help that Magaji had previously demanded access to critical software codes from Webitscure, which they declined.

“He requested critical software codes, which we felt was beyond his delegated authority and could potentially undermine our engagement with the association, as this could lead to a potential breach resulting in severe consequences for the association,” Makarios told FIJ.

Makarios believed that the March 31 cyberattack was intended to damage Webitscure’s servers and discredit their work, and although they reported the matter to the NBA immediately and requested an audit, no efforts were made to resolve the issue.

An independent audit carried out by the company, however, indicated that Magaji launched the attack on the NBA domain server.

“President YC Maikyau SAN refused to pay our company despite repeated demands while our platform and services were effectively deployed by the Association to collect BPF (Bar Practising Fee) payments. All requests for payment were rebuffed by the leadership of the association.

“Events revealed the objective of the President to attempt to use our company to offer services to the NBA with no intention of paying us and to surreptitiously get his nephew to understudy our modus operandi with the sole aim of hijacking and taking over the service from us, which he went further to confirm by contracting his nephew to offer the same services our company was engaged with the Association.”

Subsequently, Websitcure’s servers have continued to suffer attacks in attempts to maliciously access some of their hosting accounts, damaging various platforms owned by the company and its partners.

To nip the issue in the bud, Webitscure wrote several letters to the NBA and its board of trustees and sent a petition to the police, but there has been deafening silence on all sides, at least until three weeks ago, when Makarios called the police’s cybercrime unit to ask for updates and was told that they could not move forward with the petition without the approval of the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

This was just after the NBA president visited the police to invite the IGP to the association’s Annual General Conference (AGC) on August 25.

Letter from Webitscure addressed to the chairman of the NBA Board of Trustees

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FIJ phoned the NBA president for comments but was unable to reach him at press time.

Magaji told FIJ that he was not prepared to make any comments on the allegations. “They have already taken action on it. They have sent a petition to the IG. Speak to the IG to get updates,” he told FIJ.

Habeeb Lawal, the NBA public secretary, however, told FIJ that there was an agreement to conduct an audit of the services rendered by Webitscure. He, however, said he could not make any comments publicly on the cyberattack launched on the NBA’s domain.

“It was an internal matter, and internal efforts are ongoing to resolve the issue,” he said.