FIFA, speak up against the rape of Nigerian football now *Dissociate self from illegality, corruption and injustice rocking football in Nigeria *Letter to FIFA From Adebowale Adeoye Dear Jerome, may I through this short note brief the Federation International Football Association (FIFA) of latest development on the Election Appeals against the 2014 Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) elections held in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. The Appeal Committee for the elections had its public sitting, where all parties submitted petitions and responses both in written and oral. Petitions were filed by Barrister Leonard Iyke Igbokwe and three others. After the two days public sitting, the chairman promised to deliver the decision of the committee to the public soonest. Surprisingly, on Tuesday 2nd December, some substitute members of the committee fraudulently came up with a submission that the petitions had been thrashed in to waste basket for lack of merit, they added that, though the chairman has contrary opinion. Out of the four that signed the press release, only one was eligible while other three members have no right to sign on behalf of the committee. Why would the report of a committee not be comprehensive. Where is the so-called majority report? Have committee reports in the past been in form of press statements? Why is this case different? How can a beneficiary (Dotun Coker) of one of the people petitioned against (Amaju Pinnick) sit in judgment over a case against his boss? How can non-lawyer (Sanni Zamfara, who can barely spell his name correctly in English) preside over a trained lawyer? Why was he not made the chairman? From these and several questions that will arise from the current charade facing Nigerian football, may I request you to carefully study the NFF Election Appeals Committee matter. You will realise that quite contrary to the lies dished out by NFF that four Committee members signed the decision upholding the 2014 NFF Elections, that it was actually only one member (Sani from Zamfara State) that has the right to sign. The other three signatories are impostors. This is so because the Election Appeals Committee under the Electoral code is composed of three substantive members and two substitute members. Now, one of the substantive members (Dotun Coker, from Lagos State) was disqualified because he was an interested party as he was appointed into the NFF Youth Development Committee by the Pinnik Amaju Board and so cannot sit to hear petitions against his bosses. The other two substitutes (Bala from Kaduna and Victor from Anambra) who also signed, clearly had no powers to do so as a substitute player cannot get into the field of play without an in-field player being removed and in a proper way. So as at today, the committee has just two members (Okechukwu Ajunwa who is the chairman and Sani). In the case of a tie which happened here, the chairman has the deciding vote which he expressed in his well detailed, well published, well articulated 80-page judgement which cannot be compared with the watery one and a half page press statement of the NFF. Wait. Can non-lawyers prepare and sign a judicial judgement? It leave football (both at the local and FIFA level at the ridiculous and laughable level. If FIFA keeps mum, it will underline the fact that it is the most corrupt institution in the world as alleged. Some of the NFF folks are already saying that, ‘is it not FIFA, just take the correct money there they will turn their faces to the other side while we do what we want.’ Is this true? If it is the wisdom of the drafters of the NFF Statute to have demanded a lawyer to be in the committee, and it was also the wisdom of the NFF that the lawyer is the chairman, a tested lawyer at that, while the other two are not lawyers. Does this make some sense? In view of the above facts and others which I had earlier sent you, may I call on FIFA to dissociate itself from the atrocities and illegality going on in the Nigeria Football Federation. It is people’s opinion that FIFA is supporting illegality and corruption rocking our football, this is an avenue for FIFA to make statement and allow fair play. It really does not matter how long it takes to get to our destination, but to get things right is the major concern of the correct stakeholders of our game. There are lot of publications against FIFA everywhere and Nigeria is no exception, describing the body as the most corrupt in the world, this is sad and unbearable for us as stakeholders of the round leather game. We must use this golden opportunity to stop the impunity and rape of our football laws with the active connivance of FIFA officials. This is akin to a lady being raped (Nigerian football) and FIFA are the ones holding the legs of the lady wide to allow the rapist have his way well. I will send other messages later before noon of Saturday 6th December, 2014. Regards. Adebowale Adeboye Adeoye, Vice Chairman, Nigeria Women Football League.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 10:19:07 +0000
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