The lingering crisis that engulfed Nigerian football in the last decade took another twist on Wednesday with the chairman of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL), Chief Victor Rumson Baribote and his entire board been thrown out of office by 16 clubs after a marathon meeting that spanned through to the wee hours of Wednesday in Abuja.
The development came on the same day the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had given approval to the NPL to go ahead with its 7th congress which they had earlier kicked against.
The 16 clubs out of the 20 registered premier league clubs, unanimously sacked Baribote- led NPL board, citing several accusations against the board including its failure to attract a title sponsor for the league, as reasons for their action.
The 16 clubs immediately set up an Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Mike Idoko of Sunshine Stars, Alloy Chukwuemeka, Promise Nwachukwu, Tony Ogola, Sabo Babayaro and Alhaji Sule Chindo and urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to recognize the interim committee. The NFF board met yesterday to deliberate on the matter, but all efforts to get the report before going to press yesterday were not successful. Whether the NFF will recognize Mike Idoko- led interim board or not will be another piece of cake for the media to feast on.
The Mike Idoko- led IMC also immediately cancelled the 7th Nigeria Premier League (NPL) congress which had earlier scheduled to hold last Thursday in Kano. Idoko told newsmen after the meeting that his committee has the mandate to organise the congress on or before December 10, 2012.
It could be recalled that from the very first day after the elections that brought in Aminu Maigari- led board of NFF was concluded, series of court cases took centre stage over the legality of the elections. As if that was not enough, the affiliate body, NPL, was also thrown into confusion as Davidson Owumi who took over from former NPL chairman, Chief Oyuke Obaseki was declared illegible and it took Baribote who contested against him almost year to reclaimed his mandate through court process.