The Electoral Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) reportedly plans to conduct its Elective Congress on September 30.
There are indications that the embattled outgone President of the Federation, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, has today, invited FIFA and CAF officials to observe the congress.
On Tuesday, September 27, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development had an indoor deliberation with the eleven presidential candidates advising them to respect the decision of the court.
Whatever the outcome of the meeting with the Minister of Sports is, the next 24 hours will define whether the elections will hold as originally scheduled or the court injunction barring it from holding will be respected.
However, after the meeting with the Minister, Some of the contestants, including the Chairman of Imo State Football Association Chief Amanze Uchegbulam, a former Vice President of the NFF, said they would respect the court injunction while there are those contestants who are going to toe the position of the Electoral committee of the NFF.
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Whatever the outcome of the meeting with the Minister of Sports is, the next 24 hours will define whether the elections will go on as originally scheduled or the court injunction barring it from holding will be respected.
Meanwhile, one of the Presidential candidates ahead of the elective congress, Dr. Christian Emeruwa, has posited that he will continue with his campaign regardless of the court injunction stopping the electoral process from holding but, he still absolutely agrees with the aggrieved players who took the NFF to court.
While speaking during a radio interview on KTFM 103 sports anchored by Noah Noel Aniemu in Jos, Dr. Emeruwa had to say, “ I am still campaigning because the NFF electoral committee which is responsible for the organization of the elections has not communicated to me in any way to say the elections will not be held.
“We are also aware of the situation and we are hoping that the Nigeria Football Federation will solve whatever needs to be solved before the elections to allow it go ahead without any hitches, so I am still campaigning if that’s what you want to know”.
On the aggrieved players union that took the Board of the Federation to court, the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN), Dr. Emeruwa added, “The truth of the matter is that these gentlemen have a reason for advocating for inclusion in the entire system and I agree with their postulation that they need to be included.
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“I have spoken to the leadership of both the PFAN which is led by Tijani Babangida as well as the other group which is led by a gentleman from Kogi State.
“I have told both groups that when I become the President they will have to come together as we cannot be dealing with two different players’ unions as we need one formidable player’s union that will be affiliated to FIFPRO that will now be fully responsible for promoting and developing players’ interests”.
In a related development, Seigha Obiene, a retired Footballer and member of PFAN Bayelsa State chapter in South-South Nigeria on Tuesday, 27th September 2022 restored his court order in the Federal High Court Yenagoa Bayelsa State where he is seeking a new date for the hearing of the substantive matter.
Obiene said he returned to court because the NFF Congressmen did not meet the terms of the agreement with his representative the PFAN task force.
It could be recalled that Seigha Obiene obtained an interim order from the Federal High Court Yenagoa in Bayelsa state on 10th December 2021 putting the Lagos December 2021 NFF Annual General Assembly on hold.
But after a gentleman’s agreement between the PFAN and the NFF the matter was temporarily discarded to allow the AGA in Lagos State southwest Nigeria to hold.
After the AGA in Lagos, the aggrieved PFAN went back to court to get another injunction barring the 30th September 2022 NFF Elective Congress from holding, saying the NFF failed to honour its own part of their agreement.
