…as Giwa again floors Pinnick in court
The National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) has vowed to drag the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), if it makes good its threat to ban Nigeria from international football activities.
FIFA had given Nigeria up to Monday, August 20, 2018 to resolve the NFF leadership crisis between Chris Giwa and Amaju Pinnick or face ban on all football affairs
President of the association Harrison Jalla, issued the threat on Friday in Abuja on the heels of FIFA threat to ban Nigeria from participating in international activities after taking its football leadership feud to courts.
Jalla who led another round of peaceful protest against deployment of DSS operatives to the secretariat of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), said FIFA would be violating its own statutes if it bans Nigeria.
He therefore declared that the ban would be challenged in the court if it eventually comes.
“Why is FIFA President Gianni Infantino shielding corruption; we are going to challenge FIFA because we don’t know the section of the regulation of their statues that we have breached that necessitate a ban.
“We are going to take them to International Court of Justice and ensure that justice is done because this is a sovereign nation.
“According to the statues approved for Nigeria, it states that the laws of this country are sacrosanct and that FIFA must operate within the ambit of Nigerian law.
“They must establish the facts why we are going to be banned because the two parties in this feud benefited from the judicial process to the Supreme Court and back.
“Pinnick won at the Court of Appeal, so, why should Nigeria be singled out for ban.
“If we succumb to this threat it will continue; the problem started from 2010 to 2014 and then to 2018, and they want to conduct another election without solving the issues from the two previous election, it’s not possible.
“It is good we reorganise ourselves because we come back from every international competition we go to with disgrace; this is an opportunity to reorganise, so we are waiting for the ban,” Jalla said.
According to Jalla, he will continue to lead a peaceful demonstration to the football secretariat until the DSS operatives are withdrawn.
“We will continue to be here until the DSS operatives vacate the football secretariat. We are doing this because there is a judgment and it says that whoever that won that election should occupy the NFF secretariat.
“The judgment also says that the DSS should assist to enforce that judgment, so we are doing this to tell government that one of its agencies is trying to play above the law.
“We use this medium to plead with the Acting President to withdraw these men from the football house, and until they are withdrawn we will continue to make our presence felt here.
“If there is no justice, there will be no peace; that is one of the issues that brought us here today,” he said.
The Chris Giwa-led board had taken charge at the NFF secretariat on July 2 following a Supreme Court ruling.
The ruling had set aside a 2016 judgment of the Appeal Court on the leadership tussle and sent the case back to the Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, where it started in September 2014.
Giwa and his men were however, chased out of office by men of the DSS in favour of the Amaju Pinnick- led board.
The DSS claimed to be acting on an order from the presidency.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Jos on Friday failed to vacate the ex-parte granted Chris Giwa, one of the parties in the leadership crisis that has engulfed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
The court had granted the order on June 5, 2018, which gave Giwa the impetus to pose as the President of the NFF.
Following that order, Giwa moved into the NFF headquarters last month, a development that did not go down well with Giwa’s rival, Amaju Pinnick, who rushed to the court with three motions on notice asking the court to vacate the order.
When the case came up for hearing on Friday, counsel to Pinnick, Mr Festus Ukpe, told the court that he had filed three motions on notice and was seeking the leave of court to move them.
He said that the motions sought to ask the court to vacate the ex-parte order earlier granted Giwa on June 5, 2018 so that Nigeria could escape a ban from football activities as threatened by FIFA.
But Giwa’s counsel, Mr Habila Ardzard, raised an objection to Pinnick’s motions, and notified the court of a pending appeal he filed before the Jos Court of Appeal in respect of the case.
He explained that the appeal was challenging the ruling of Justice Musa Kurya which allowed Pinnick to serve Giwa a photocopy of the said motions on notice, instead of original copies.
Ardzard argued that any attempt by the judge to hear any of Pinnick’s motions would amount to “abuse of court processes” and “judicial rascality.”
“My Lord, this Honourable court has been informed of the said appeal before the Jos Court of Appeal, and by that, this court lacks the jurisdiction to continue with this matter pending the determination of the appeal.
“This is the position of the Supreme Court and that of the Appellate court; if the lower court will do otherwise, it will only be setting itself on collision course with the Apex and Appellate Courts.
“We hereby urge your lordship to adjourn the case pending the determination of the appeal by the appellate court,” he argued.
Kurya, in his ruling, said that there were two posers – whether there was an appeal, and whether he could continue with the matter.
In answering the two posers, the judge declared that he had resolved the two in favour of Giwa, and therefore decided to adjourn the case indefinitely.
“Since there is an appeal before the appellate court, I don’t want to be involved in any judicial rascally, therefore I hereby adjourn the case indefinitely,” he declared.
The latest attempt is the third by Pinnick to convince the court to vacate the ex-parte order it granted Giwa.
The court’s position had created anxiety in soccer circles following the threat by FIFA to ban Nigeria if the NFF leadership crisis is not resolved. – NAN.
