President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick
The Sports Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday had an interactive session with top officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports led by the Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, and officials of the Nigeria Football Federation led by 2nd Vice President/League Management Committee chairman, Shehu Dikko.
According to a release from the NFF, “the Sports Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday insisted that there was no crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation, as there is no dispute whatsoever that Mr. Amaju Pinnick remains the president of the nation’s football body.”
The statement added that the House Committee, headed by GoniBukar Lawan, expressed concern that a group led by Chris Giwa had been threatening the peace of Nigerian football and courting a FIFA sanction for the country.
The House Committee’s move followed a motion of ‘urgent national importance’ moved on the floor of the House of Representatives on Monday and the nation’s lower parliament thereafter mandated its Sports Committee to handle the matter.
At Thursday’s session at the National Assembly, Dalung, the Director of Legal Services in the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Olatigbe Johnson, and the NFF’s Head of Legal, Okey Obi,established that there was no court order nullifying the NFF election, or asking Giwa to take over the NFF.
Dalung said, “When the Giwa group served a notice of discontinuance to the court in October 2014, the court struck out the case and made it clear that the case was dead. I don’t know anyone else who has been able to raise the dead except Jesus Christ!
“What the court did on April 8 was simply to re-list the case for hearing. It did not sack the NFF Board and certainly did not ask Giwa to go and take over the NFF.”
Giwa told our correspondent that his faction would visit the House on Tuesday.
“They (House Committee on Sports) didn’t hear from us today (Thursday) but we were given our letter today to appear before the House on Tuesday. They only heard from the other faction,” he said.
But a member of the Giwa faction, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We were not there during their sitting but the Chairman (House Committee on Sports) told me that today is not our date but Tuesday; that the House gave them the mandate to listen to us on the crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation.
“So, they decided to invite the Minister and the Head of Legal Department of the NFF and Legal Department of the sports ministry. Those were the people they heard today and they are going to hear from us on Tuesday. If there is no crisis, why did the House invite them for hearing?”
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