The Chris Giwa-led board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has vowed to stick to its mandate, announcing the dissolution of all the State Football Associations and FCT.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Giwa, also announced that his board would hold Congress on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, “Based on the Order of the Federal High Court Jos which nullified the Warri elections, that has guaranteed the fact that all actions undertaken by the Amaju Pinnick board are illegal and unknown to law.
“Therefore, all state Football Associations stand dissolved. Existing board members in the states are free to re-contest their positions.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday), there shall be an Extra-Ordinary Congress of the appointed state caretaker committee in Abuja where decisions shall be reached and communicated to the nation in due course.”
Justifying his resolve to oust the Amaju Pinnick-led board, Giwa said, “We want to assure the nation that this is a mandate we are going to stick to with extreme patience. We must liberate Nigerian football from the clutches of those who fed on it and make it an investor-friendly game. We have decided to embark on this well-thought-out battle. We appreciate the enormity of opposition ahead of us but we shall conquer.
“We went through the laid down processes in the NFF Statute ahead of the 26th August 2014 electoral process. We got elected and sworn-in by the electoral committee the NFF Congress set up led by Mr. Amoni Biambo.”
He recalled the process leading to withdrawal of the case in court, saying, “In the processes of the post election issues, President Goodluck Jonathan intervened. Out of respect for his office and person, we went down and sought the Federal High Court Jos to step down the matter with a proviso that if we are not satisfied, we reserve the right to return to court.
“We opted to leave the matter until the illegal occupants of our mandate feeling cozy decided to run all of us including the media, players, coaches etc out of administering our game from the next election. They want only chairmen of state FAs to be the only ones eligible to contest. We returned to court and here we are today.”
Giwa also faulted claims that football matters could not be referred to civil court, noting that “Article 1.1 of Fifa Statute and Article 1.1 of NFF Statute are very clear. Both organisations admitted to subservience to national laws of nations. In Fifa’s case, they agreed to be subservient to Swiss laws and the NFF to Nigerian laws.
“Article 1.1 of Fifa Statute states: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is an association registered in the Commercial Register in accordance with art. 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code.
“Article 1.1 of the NFF statute states: Nigeria Football Federation is a private organization of an associative nature in compliance with the laws of Nigeria. It is formed for an unlimited period.
“There are several cases where civil issues in the management of football have gone to courts. The most recent is that of Egypt where a court also sacked the FA which has been obeyed.”
