Few days ago, news broke that an appeal court in Abuja sacked Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau alongside all the members of the present NFF board in a recent ruling.
According to the report, it was alleged that the court, led by Justice Barika, along with Justices Okon Abang and Justice Banjoko, ordered the dismissal of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Board and the reason for the decision was the alleged use of ‘dubious’ orders, acquired through ‘deceit’ on September 29, 2022, for conducting the NFF election on September 30th in Benin City, Edo State.
It further claimed that during the proceedings, the NFF was represented by Chief Okutepa SAN (represented by Peace Omiri and Barrister Arnold from his chambers), while the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN) Task Force was represented by Dr. Celsus Ukpong, Chief Rumson Baribote, and Mary Waribo.
The acclaimed statement from Harrison Jalla, Chairman of the PFAN Task Force, highlighted the gravity of the ruling, indicating potential criminal contempt proceedings for any sacked NFF Board member who continues to parade themselves as such, especially after the ongoing AFCON in Ivory Coast but information reaching our sports desk is that there was no letter to that effect submitted to the NFF as at press time.
It is believed that this action is a calculated attempts to cause confusion amongst the board members but they failed to understand that it is also going to distract the team (Super Eagles), who are presently competing at the ongoing African Cup of Nations, AFCON in Cote D’Ivoire.
A stakeholder who preferred anonymity claimed that the court case is politically-induced because the unpatriotic fellows are afraid that the Super Eagles might just go all the way to repeat the feat of 2013 when they lifted the trophy in South Africa.
Recalled that the late Stephen Keshi-team defeated Didier Drogba-led Cote d’ivoire team in the quarter-final before defeating Burkina-Faso in the final to win the cup for the third time in 2013.
The distractors seem to have seen the handwriting boldly written on the wall hence they have decided to come up with these gimmicks. The question is, why did it take them a long time to come up with this distraction. A board member (name withheld) disclosed that the alleged court matter wouldn’t have come up if the Super Eagles had lost to the Ivorians or if they had crashed out of the tournament.
She said the distractors are afraid that if the Super Eagles go ahead to lift the trophy as many have predicted as a repeat of 2013, then the present board will have an easy ride to return to office for another term.
We reliably gathered that some people are making frantic efforts to return to office while those who have not had the opportunity are hell-bent in scattering everything and return the country to the bad old days of factionisation.
These sets of people should behave like other well-meaning citizens by putting the country first before considering their selfish interest. If they are aggrieved in anyway, sitting on the round is a better way to resolve issues, even wars are resolved on the table let alone with a gentle man in the person of Ibrahim Gusau, who has a listening ear.
We want to use this opportunity to call on the Super Eagles to remain focus and not be distracted by some unnecessary distractions.
However, we are calling on the number citizen of the country, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally is a sport lover and ardent football fan to call the distractors to order and if the Super Eagles failed to lift the AFCON trophy (God forbids), they should be held accountable.
