By Mark Baber
November 20 – As the Nigeria national team fails to qualify for the African Nations Cup, the countries’ top football administrator is turned to quoting scripture, claiming the failure is a blessing in disguise whilst the crisis over the legitimacy of the ruling body descends into new levels of farce.
After the failure to beat South Africa, Amaju Pinnick (pictured), who was elected as NFF president in disputed elections on September 30 issued a statement that “The NFF takes full responsibility for what has happened. It is a tragedy for us to come so near and yet fail to reach the finals.
“We made so much effort and sacrifice in Congo to achieve the victory we needed there on Saturday and really had no business bungling it here.
“However, our commitment is to build a sustainable football culture in the country and nothing has changed. This is a disappointment but for us, we gave it our best shot and supported the team fully.”
Pinnick continued; “All things work together for good for those that love God, according to Romans 8:28. This has happened but we believe it will work together for us to toil hard and achieve a renaissance that will take Nigeria football to much higher heights than it has ever been.”
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Elections Appeal Committee has reportedly (and sensibly) delayed its decision over the legitimacy of the September 30 election of Pinnick and his group, until the issue of Africa Nations Cup qualifying was out of the way and its verdict on the elections can be expected in the next few days.
On Monday one of the petitioners against the election, Iyke Igbokwe, submitted a written response to the various defence arguments filed by Pinnick including the principle argument that the Electoral Appeals Committee lacks jurisdiction to decide on the legitimacy of the election as it is out of time (despite the various petitions against it having been presented in time).
According to Igbokwe, “This position of the respondent is fraudulent for the cardinal reason that it was the Respondent that was solely responsible for the delay in the hearing of my petition, (If indeed the time specified for the hearing of my petition had elapsed). This is because I filed my petition with the NFF General Secretariat headed by the Respondent within the specified period of 14 days on the 10th of October, 2014. So the problem is not with me as I met the timeline for filling Appeals on the election.”
“The issue of functus officio being raised by the Respondent as a result of expiry of time, was purely caused by the Respondent and his agents at the NFF Secretariat. The Respondent as the head of the NFF, was responsible for the activation of the Election Appeals Committee to do its work within the specified 14 days as I submitted my petition to the NFF Secretariat and not to the Committee as provided in Article 12 (2) of the NFF Electoral code. It was the duty of the NFF General Secretariat headed by the Respondent as NFF President to ensure that my petition was heard within the specified time. So for the respondent to raise the issue of “out of time” as a defence to evade the hearing of my petition, which was filed within time, is a fraudulent and dubious means to cheat the system.
“The Respondent’s submission on this ground should be dismissed as he cannot benefit from a wrong totally caused and orchestrated by him. It is now clear that the Respondent and his Agents deliberately hid my petition from the Committee in order to use the reason of functus officio occasioned by expiry of time to hear my petition, to evade justice.
“As the Petitioner, I ended my own responsibility on the time issue by filing my petition on time. The next assignment of ensuring that the Election Appeals Committee sat within 14 days after my filing of Appeal rests on the Respondent, who is now the President of the NFF charged with carrying out decisions of the Congress as embedded in the Electoral code.”
This “fraudulent and dubious means to cheat the system” has been taken a step further by the First Vice-President of the NFF, Seyi Akinwunmi, who has reportedly appealed to, and received, a ruling from the NFF Appeals Committee that the NFF Electoral Appeals Committee does not have jurisdiction to hear the appeals against the NFF election, for this same reason.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734894145labto1734894145ofdlr1734894145owedi1734894145sni@r1734894145ebab.1734894145kram1734894145