Nigeria Football Federation have a decision to make on the future of September 30's Elective Congress.
The nation footbally body, has two days left to vacate a standing court order stopping the coming 2022 election into the executive board of the NFF for the next four years if they want to go ahead.
On September 15, an ex-parte order given by Hon. Justice I.E. Ekwo by the Federal High Court, Abuja stopped the scheduled NFF Elective Congress in Benin City on 30th September, 2022 pending the hearing of the case in October.
Following the existing order, the Nigerian government on Wednesday further increased the already tensed atmosphere, advising the stakeholders of football to obey the ruling stopping the polls.
In a statement, signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Ismaila Abubakar, urged the country's football body to avoid any move to disobey the law of the land.
"The Ministry is also aware of the Court Order made by Hon. Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court on the 15th day of September, 2022 whereby the Court had directed all parties, including NFF and the Hon. Minister of Youth and Sports Development to maintain status quo ante pending the final Order of Court," the statement read.
"Following from the above Order of Court, which had also been served on the Office of the Honorable Minister of Youth and Sports Development as 3rd Defendant in the case under reference, the Hon. Minister of Youth and Sports Development will obey and abide by the Court Order and hereby advises all other Defendants in this case, including NFF to abide by the Order of Court by not doing anything or taking any further step(s); particularly, as regard NFF elections that will be or could be interpreted to amount to disobedience to lawful Court Order or contempt
Of Court."
Earlier on Tuesday after meeting with the sports minister Sunday Date, some presidental aspirants in the NFF election voiced their concerns over the court injuction, while some have decided to withdraw ahead of the polls.
First of them, two-decade long serving Imo State FA chairman and former vice president Amanze Uchegbulam, in a letter to the Electoral Committee on Monday, announced his withdrawal from the contest, citing the court order.
“I hereby formally bring to your notice of my intention, not to participate in the NFF elections scheduled for September 30, 2022,” Uchegbulam wrote in the letter.
“In the view of the fact that there is a well publicized order from Hon. Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja on the 15th day of September 2022, stopping the election pending the heating of the substantive suit.
“However, as a Law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I shall make myself available and participate in the election upon the order, being vacated or set aside or issues being resolved by the parties, to the knowledge of the Court and the public for the purpose, and same communicated to the aspirants accordingly by the electoral committee.”
Just as FCT FA Chairman and another presidential candidate, Mouktar Mohammed decleared his decision to obey the court order, while hinting that the process to vacate the injuction is already in the works.
“It was a meeting of stakeholders with the Minister of Sports. The Minister is the leader of Sports in Nigeria and we oblige the meeting to have a dialogue regarding issues on ground,” Mohammed told the media.
“There are some decisions that we expect the Electoral Committee to look at that has to do with advise from security agencies. Of course, there is a court order, we all know. We are all law abiding citizens and so we will see to it. In the coming days, the court order can be vacated but as law abiding citizens we will follow what court said.
“It is an ongoing discussion. There is no conclusion yet. In the next few days we will hear more. We hope that at the end of the day, there would be a credible process acceptable to everyone for football to begin to flourish again.”
In 2014, a court order had stopped the NFF elections but the football body went ahead with the polls, which produced Amaju Pinnick, whose running eight-year long two-term tenure expired on September 20. It is unclear what the future holds for the NFF elections but such situation are not unfamiliar to football stakeholders.
It remains to be seen if the Pinnick led NFF board will again disobey the court order this time to elect its fresh leadership in Benin City amidst security threats against the venue of the elections.
