By Mark Baber
September 25 – Aminu Maigari, the outgoing President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), was again taken in for questioning by the Nigerian Department of State Services (DSS) on Wednesday as officials stayed away from their fire-damaged HQ in fears of being “called in for a chat,” arrested for contempt of court, or served with a Court Order relating to the upcoming elections of September 30.
Maigari was taken away for questioning after arriving back in Abuja from Zurich. He was reportedly interrogated about what he was doing in Zurich at FIFA headquarters where he had been attending a player status committee meeting.
Maigari was released but this morning NFF General Secretary Musa Amadu has subsequently been invited in for “a chat”, with a senior official saying at this rate all 44 delegates to next week’s congress in Warri and all the candidates will have had a chat with the DSS before the elections.
A clearer picture of who would like to take over from Maigari emerged on Wednesday with seven aspirants cleared by an electoral committee.
The candidates include current vice president, Chief Mike Umeh; former vice president, Amanze Uchegbulam; former secretary general, Taiwo Ogunjobi; Dominic Iorfa; Shehu Dikko, Abba Yola and Pinnick Amaju, the current Chairman of Delta state FA. Later in the day former Presidential aide and lawmaker Lumumba Adeh was reported to have put himself forward, but the final list will not be decided until Friday as protests may be made.
Notable by his absence from the list of candidates is, of course, Chris Giwa who maintains that he has already been legitimately elected President.
Whilst the Nigerian team manager Stephen Keshi has threatened his team may not play their upcoming game against Sudan if the election is derailed by court action, Giwa has reportedly promised to have the NFF management and others who attended last Saturday’s extraordinary congress, in defiance of the court order issued by Jos High Court, committed to jail.
Whilst various of the candidates have been campaigning on platforms of bringing lasting peace and stability to the NFF, bringing in lucrative sponsorship deals, persuading Adidas to reverse its decision to end its sponsorship of the national team, and reducing the amount of litigation the NFF is involved in, the electoral process is clearly in a highly precarious state.
Okeychukwu Ajunwa, Chairman of the NFF’s Electoral Appeals Committee has admitted that court papers, aimed at preventing last Saturdays extraordinary congress which set the new election date, have indeed been served to the appropriate quarters at the Nigerian football federation.
With the threat of a contempt charge, the possibility of a new court order and the prospect of being picked up for questioning by the DSS, it is little wonder that the fire-damaged NFF headquarters has been described as a “ghost town” as officials find “assignments” elsewhere to fulfil.
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