By Mark Baber
October 3 – FIFA has thrown its weight behind the newly elected Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Amaju Pinnick (pictured) who has promised to go to Jos to speak to Chris Giwa. But the situation remains on a knife-edge as another rival declares the election was bought and all factions stay away from the fire-damaged NFF Headquarters Glass House which is guarded by plain-clothes security with Jos High Court injunctions stuck to the doors.
On Wednesday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter sent a letter of congratulations to Pinnick. On Thursday any lingering doubts about FIFA’s commitment to Pinnick’s election were dispelled as Jerome Valcke sent a letter of congratulation in which he stated: “We now expect the NFF and its new leadership to carry out its activities without any hindrance in order to avoid having to again refer the case to the appropriate FIFA bodies for an automatic suspension as stated in our previous correspondence.”
But following election candidate Dominic Iorfa’s allegations of bribery, another (unnamed) losing candidate has made detailed accusations, reported in local media, that a powerful politician and close relative of Pinnick’s wife made $20,000 payments to many members of the electoral college to secure Pinnick’s victory.
Fears that Chris Giwa would turn up on Thursday to lay claim to the NFF headquarters building armed with a new injunction from the High Court sitting in Jos failed to materialise. However, the building was deserted, other than security men, a few staffers and journalists, with the previously ignored Court Orders from Jos still pasted to the doors.
Pinnick is clearly committed to try and bring the feuding factions together and told journalists, “I will reach out to all the people that contested against me; Abba Yola, Amanze Uchegbulam, Taiwo Ogunjobi, Dominic Iorfa, Mike Umeh. I will reach out to all of them and extend a hand of friendship because we need to bring everybody back together.
“I will personally travel to Jos and sit with Chris Giwa and try to make peace. We need to move our football forward and we need to have a united house.”
Whether Pinnick’s diplomatic efforts will succeed, prior to further legal action emanating from Jos, remains to be seen.
For his part, the Sports Minister, Tamuno Danagogo, has declared he is “not schooled in the tradition of disobeying court orders, that’s why I told all parties to come down and let’s sit down to sort things out. We refuse to interfere, but in the interest of Nigeria we may intervene.”
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