By Mark Baber
December 8 – In the wake of Barrister Okey Ajunwa’s Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Appeals Committee 80-page report which concluded the election of Amaju Pinnick was flawed and should be rerun, and the refusal of the NFF to accept that report, FIFA is now faced with a choice.
The sport’s governing body has to decide whether to intervene on the side of Pinnick and his group’s increasingly desperate attempts to remain in power or on the side of Ajunwa and the application of NFF and FIFA statutes and judicial processes in Nigerian football.
FIFA’s choice may have been complicated by the successful attempt to draw the lay members of Ajunwa’s committee into the Pinnick camp as well as weariness of Nigerians, including members of the Nigerian press corps, with the ongoing leadership crisis and a desire to sweep the whole mess under the carpet.
Over the weekend the rebel members of the NFF Appeals Committee launched personal attacks on their chairman and held a vote of “no confidence” in him, whilst at least one call was made for Ajunwa’s arrest for insisting on carrying out his judicial functions.
A crucial question for FIFA will be whether the supposed “report” submitted to by the rebel members approving the Pinnick election has any legitimacy; which it clearly does not going by the NFF statues as it was not signed by the chairman.
Barrister Leonard Igbokwe, one of the aggrieved candidates in the September 30 elections, insisted that only one of the rebel members of the Appeals Committee even had a legitimate right to a vote on the committee and Ajunwa’s report is therefore the only report FIFA should consider.
For his part Ajunwa said he would not descend into a war of words through the media saying:
“The congress elected me chairman and what we are talking about is clear. We are performing a judicial function and I just came out to present my decision.
“I am 22 years in the law and I cannot start trading words with anybody on the pages of newspapers.
“People think they can be bought, but nobody can buy me. If you have any doubt, go and read my judgement to decide if I did a thorough job or not.”
FIFA has been placed in an awkward position as the organisation supported the September 30 elections (against the order of a Nigerian civil court), despite not sending a representative to ensure they were free and fair. However, especially following the Ajunwa report, it looks increasingly that the NFF elections need to rerun, including all candidates, if legitimacy is to return to Nigerian football governance.
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