NFF to hold elections in defiance of court order

Ifeanyi Ibeh


August 26, 2010

The Nigeria Football Federation is determined to hold its elections today, despite orders from a High Court in Lagos that the polls be postponed.

The elections had earlier been scheduled to take place last Saturday but it was rescheduled for today by the congress of the NFF. Tuesday’s court decision which arose from a complaint filed by a former footballer, Harrison Jalla, on behalf of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), a body that was not accorded recognition by the NFF which favoured the Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria (APFON). The injunction was the latest twist in the ongoing confusion in Nigerian football.

Tuesday also saw a group of placard carrying former footballers led by former Nigeria captain Segun Odegbami, who is aspiring to become the next president of the NFF. the group stormed Abuja clamouring for the postponement of the board elections.

But despite these developments, as well as the court order calling for the postponement of the polls, the NFF insists the elections will take place as scheduled.

“I have read somewhere in the papers about a court order but as far as I know there has not been any change regarding the elections,” media officer of the NFF, Robinson Okosun told NEXTSports before adding: “They will go on as scheduled.”

Singing FIFA’s tune

The NFF’s decision is in sync with that of football’s world governing body FIFA, and its African affiliate CAF, which has all along insisted that elections must go on as scheduled. But former Nigeria international Taju Disu, was among a group of former internationals at a press conference in Abuja who yesterday lent their voice to the clamour for fresh postponement of the elections, saying the NFF was walking on dangerous grounds.

“It is obvious to all of us that these elections should not take place if we want to get things right in our football,” said Disu. “We have been getting it all wrong for a long time and now is the time for us to do the right thing.

“What some individuals are trying to perpetrate is a scheme that will usher in the same set of individuals who have been ruining our football and they are trying to use the threat of a FIFA ban to shut us all up.

“But we know the entire process is flawed and if it goes on it will only result into more confusion,” added Disu who then called for all the ex-internationals vying for positions into the NFF board to pull out of Thursday’s polls.

That call appears to have been accepted by Odegbami who informed NEXTSports that he won’t be contesting in the polls if it goes ahead as planned.

“I won’t contest if it goes ahead,” he told NEXTSports on the line from Abuja. “The entire process is flawed and I will not be a part of it if it goes ahead.” Another former international, Mutiu Adepoju, who is also vying for a position in the NFF board however declined to comment.