Olawale Ajimotokan and Sumaina Kasim
26 May 2011
The Director General of the Sports National Sports Commission, (NSC) Chief Patrick Ekeji has requested for a seven-day grace period from the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, to allow him calm nerves between the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigeria Football Association, (NFA) who are at daggers drawn over the control of Nigeria football.
He made the passionate plead before Ringim after the representatives of the NFF and NFA met with the IG Wednesday to find a common ground to the ongoing crisis.
The parties had been summoned to the police headquarters in the wake of the troubling events that unfolded over the weekend, snowballing to the life ban imposed on NFA members from all football matters by the NFF board on Tuesday.
We learnt that Ekeji made the request after the IG was about yield to the position of the NFA that the court order which nullified the NFF board election should be upheld.
The appeal calmed the IG, who we gathered was willing to carry out the court order, by ordering his men to take physical control of the Glass House.
After the IG granted Ekeji’s request, the sports commission boss appealed to all the warring factions to go back and resolve their differences in the overall interest of Nigerian football.
We learnt that Ekeji had said he would make a recommendation to the presidency on the next course to chart after the grace, if there is no headway from the dark alley.
NFF was represented at the meeting by its acting Secretary General, Musa Amadu, and board member, Mike Umeh, while the NFA was represented by second Vice Chairman, Shaibu Gara-Gombe and Harrison Jalla.
It is instructive that the NSC had last Friday pronounced the NFA illegal, saying the only body recognised by the Act of the National Assembly to run football in Nigeria is NFF board headed by Aminu Maigari.
The position was also toed by FIFA which said that the only body it recognised was the NFF.
After a special meeting on Tuesday, the NFF board had declared four members of the NFA board including Gombe, Jalla, Chikelue Illoenusi, Jarret Tenebe and a journalist, Olajide Fashikun, as ‘unpatriotic elements’. They were served life ban from all football matters.
Gombe described their ban as a ruse and a huge joke.
“We have the right to associate. The decision to also ban a journalist is also out of place. The board also made themselves a laughing stock by making public their plan to vote to for Sepp Blatter at the FIFA election,” he said.
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Nigeria: NFF, NFA Tussle – Ekeji Asks IGP for Time to Resolve Crisis