The drama in Nigerian football continued yesterday in Abuja as the chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Election Appeals Committee, Barr. Okey Ajunwa announced the removal of Amaju Pinnick as the president of the NFF.
Also removed from office is the first vice president, Barr. Seyi Akinwumi as well and two board members, Chief Felix Anyansi Agwu from the South East and Alhaji Innua Rabiu from the North West.
Pinnick Amaju
Pinnick Amaju
But in a swift reaction, a member of the Appeals Committee, Dotun Coker told Sports Vanguard that the action of the chairman was a mere academic exercise because he did not work in tandem with the other members of the committee.
Coker said that Barr. Ajunwa acted alone and that explained why the two members of the committee as well as the three alternate members all came together on Wednesday to release the report which he said was the majority report.
“What the chairman did by calling the media to give his own version of the report was a mere academic exercise because he acted alone. He wanted to introduce a kangaroo method by inviting one or two members without the consent of the others.
“After the public hearing on 13 November, we agreed that we will take about three days to converge and consider the submissions started from the day of arrival. The second day and the third day was to be the verdict but the chairman subverted that. In any case all he did was a nullity which cannot change anything”.
Recall that other members of the same Election Appeals Committee had on Wednesday issued a statement where they endorsed entirely the September 30 election which took place in Warri, Delta State.
But the position of Ajunwa who was alone during the presentation of another version of the report of the committee now underscores the fact that all is not well with the nation’s football.
Ajunwa in his submission ruled that he annulled the election of Pinnick because for the election to have taken place in Warri his home town afforded him some undue advantage over the other contestants.
The Appeals chairman further ‘sacked’ the NFF president because of the disqualification of a candidate to the election, Shehu Dikko who was absent from the election venue.
The chairman of Enyimba International, Chief Felix Anyansi-Agwu according to Ajunwa lost his seat because of the presence of the chairman of the Nigeria National League (NNL), Chief Emeka Inyama who is also from the same Abia State. The same reason was given in the case of Inua because of the chairman of the Nigerian Nation Wide League (NNL), Ahmed Kawu who are from the same zone.
He therefore ordered for a fresh election for the position of president, the vice president and for two members representing the South East and North West within the next seven days and at a neutral venue preferably Abuja to ensure fairness to all the parties.
vanguard
