The early hours of Monday morning was yet another time for the leadership tussle, which has been the bane of the Nigeria Football Federation, to take a rather stern turn when men of the State Security Services (DSS) stormed the NFF Secretariat to reinstate the Amaju Pinnick board dismissed by the orders of the Supreme Court.
conflict
The DSS were reportedly sent to restore order to the federation – joined by the general secretary of the NFF, Mohammed Sanusi – who received a letter from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice that the football governing body of the nation must respect FIFA’s stand on the issue.
Chris Giwa reacted to the show of brute force in a statement (source: GongNews) after newsmen were able to reach him during the evening hours of the day.
“By the grace of God, we employed patience to go through the judicial system of the land as guaranteed by Article 1.1 of the NFF Statute to reach where we are, except if the law and the judiciary is no more significance can what happened today be allowed. Evil will not thrive over good.
“I urge our friends, allies and supporters to remain calm. Truth shall return to the centre stage in a couple of hours. What you have seen is like the different scenes in a Nollywood film. All I know is the Rule of Law will not lie low against the Rule of might and influence peddling.”
— Giwa
The Pinnick-led camp seemed very pleased with the recent developments in their favor as they thanked the Federal Government for their effort to settle the overburdening leadership crisis the has plagued the federation for so long.
“We cannot thank His Excellency enough for his action in restoring order to the Football House. By this single action, our President has restored hope to millions of Nigerian youth (sic) and the not-so-young who are involved in one way or the other in the football business. Now they can live and breathe their favourite game once more.
“All plans and programmes of the various National Teams will proceed accordingly, and we also believe the League Management Company will now put arrangements in place for the resumption of the Nigeria Professional Football League.”
–Sanusi
Following the events of Monday morning, Minister for Youth & Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, stated that his ministry did not receive any change in the court’s decision, hence the ruling of the Supreme Court on 27th April, 2018 and that of the Federal High Court on 5th June 2018 still stands.
Source: GongNews“Those who are presently trying to instigate confusion, using the name of the President must be aware that the President cannot go against the Rule of Law. The Order issued by the court has not been vacated and the President cannot vacate a court order because there are clear cut processes of doing that.
“What happened in the NFF today is security excesses but it will be sorted out. The Federal Government is urging members of the public to remain calm as it is doing its best to resolve the crises in the Nigeria Football Federation.
“The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has already initiated a process of trying to bring the stakeholders together, to work out a road map out of this quagmire. The Stakeholders’ meeting billed for Tuesday 24th July, 2018 will still go ahead as planned.
“We want to assure Nigerians that government is sorting out the grey areas but nobody should drag the name of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into this. The President is an advocate of the Rule of Law and he cannot be associated with the security excesses of a breach of the Rule of Law.
“We urge the civil servants in the federation to remain calm and go about their normal duties.”
— Dalung
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