Reports have emerged that the Presidency in Abuja made contacts with FIFA on the deadline, assuring the body that there is no need for the ban as only Amaju Pinnick board presides over the Nigerian football federation.
As duly register member of FIFA, the presidency assured that football will go on in the country in line with the international football laws. The Presidency also briefed the football governing body on the adequate measures that have been put in place to ensure smooth compliance including in the involvement of the DSS operatives.
The crises which began in 2014 re-emerged after Supreme Court granted Chris Giwa verdict. FIFA reacted that it recognizes Amaju Pinnick citing that the court is not a register court for sport activity. Sports Minister Solomon Dalung have never hidden his desire to install Chris Giwa as the NFF President against the backdrops of imminent FIFA hammer with reports last week indicating that his invitation was turned that last week by FIFA.
A top government official expressed thanks to the Buhari and Osibanjo for averting what could have been a disaster to Nigeria football. “Nigerians need to thank President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Osinbajo for bailing the country out of the needless crisis Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, was planning to plunge Nigerian football into with his backing for Giwa. We are all fully aware that what took place on August 26, 2014 at Chida Hotel in Abuja was nothing but a charade. That election had no FIFA backing nor was it in accordance with FIFA and NFF statutes,” observed the top official from Abuja
”Pinnick and his executive committee have been told to continue with their works. Any attempt by any element to disrupt activities at the football secretariat in Abuja will be visited with the full weight of the law,”
Former Vice-President CAF board of appeal Chief Amanze Uchegbulam also lend his voice. He Said: “On the issue of FIFA ban, my advice is that we must do everything to avoid it; it will never be of any good to Nigeria, and in any case, the current executives can only be removed by the NFF Congress presided over by the present incumbent because that is the way Association Football function”.
Uchegbulam also responded to the Minister’s purported visit to Zurich with 17-man delegation to meet FIFA. He said:“I am most saddened to read that our minister of sports reportedly wrote to FIFA through our Ambassador in Switzerland requesting for an appointment to visit with about 17-man delegation. I actually would want to believe it didn’t happen”. “More disappointed, to say the least, is that the purported delegation comprised of highly respected football administrators, who had served in various committees in FIFA/ CAF”. “Should the story be true, then the technocrats in the ministry had failed in their responsibility to advise the honorable minister because it had been a reoccurring thing with several past ministers and FIFA had been consistently pro-affiliate body in dealing with such requests”.
Uchegbulam believes that the nation would have been saved by the embarrassment had the sports minister done proper consultations before action. He said: “My advice to the Minister is to seek the help of those that wouldn’t necessarily tell him what he want to hear but the plain truth and such people”.