Giwa to present certified copy of verdict to AGF, sports minister

The last has not been heard of the leadership crisis rocking the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Since the Supreme Court delivered its ruling on the NFF election on April 27, there has been different interpretations of the judgment by sports analysts.

But the lawyer, who represented the Chris Giwa-led executive, Patrick Ikueto, told The Guardian, yesterday, after obtaining the certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment that the ruling would bring sanity to football administration in the country.

Ikueto spoke yesterday just as a source close to Giwa revealed that the man will tomorrow present the certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment to the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, before moving into the NFF office.

Ikueto, who said that there was no ambiguity in the judgment pointed out that, “The Supreme Court only referred the case filed by the Chris Giwa-led Executive Committee of the NFF back to the Federal High Court for “Re-hearing.”

“In effect, the judgment of the Court of Appeal, upon which the Amaju-Pinnick led Executive Committee of NFF derived their “mandate,” was set aside by the Supreme Court. By the Judgment of the Supreme Court, the orders of the Federal High Court, setting aside the election of Amaju Pinnick and his group, still subsists. Whilst the case is still pending before the Federal High Court, the Chris Giwa-led executive will remain in office pending the final determination of the suit. This is the Judgment of the Supreme Court and nobody should be deceived.”

Ikueto added: “The public must know that the case was not about any football dispute. It was about stopping the perpetration of illegality. The election of the Amaju-led committee of NFF was patently illegal as it was conducted in violation of a court order. And it is unreasonable for anyone to argue that FIFA would condone illegality under any guise.