• Disenchanted aspirants accuse polls panel of bias • Banned football stakeholders face panel Tuesday
Former Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Taiwo Ogunjobi and Chairman of Giwa FC of Jos, Senator Chris Giwa, have indicated their interest in vying for the NFF presidency at the August 26 congress, where new officials for the federation would be elected.
Interim president of the NFF, Mike Umeh, is said to be considering whether to join the fray or retain his position as the federation’s first vice president.
The Guardian gathered that Ogunjobi, who is expected to appear alongside Victor Rumson Baribote and Leye Adepoju before the NFF committee to plead their case against their ban from all football activities today, has since bought and submitted his form to the Amoni Biambo-led polls panel.
Senator Giwa is also said to have already submitted his own form to the committee, just as the impeached president, Aminu Maigari, has done.
Ogunjobi, who had earlier challenged his suspension by the Maigari-led NFF board at the court of arbitration for sports (CAS), says he has the right to contest the NFF election, stressing that his 10-year suspension, later reduced to two years by the federation, would not prevent him from running for any position, as according to him, the status quo remains pending the determination of his case by the CAS.
Umeh, who earlier indicated interest in the NFF presidency following Maigari’s impeachment, is reportedly reluctant to vie for the position due to pressure from some stakeholders.
Source at the NFF said some stakeholders advised Umeh to remain as first vice president since the top position has been zoned to the South West and North Central regions.
Meanwhile, some aspirants have accused the NFF polls committee of partiality in the run up to the elections, saying the Biambo committee has been secretive in its affairs.
In the electoral timetable released last week by the committee, the sale, endorsement and return of completed forms by aspirants commenced last Thursday and ended yesterday. But some stakeholders say the time frame is too short to complete all the protocols, alleging that some other aspirants had been given the forms even before the FIFA World Cup, which ended last month.
About seven intending aspirants came to the NFF secretariat to see the committee members. But they left disappointed as none of the officials was around to sale or collect the forms from them.
Among the aspirants are former chairman of Kano Pillars FC, Alhaji Abba Yola, Chairman of Enugu State Football Association, Chidi Offor Okenwa and Gombe United FC chairman, Farouk Yerma, among others.
NFF board member and chairman of the federation’s media committee, Emeka Inyama, who had already bought and completed his form, could not see anybody to submit his papers to when he visited both the NFF secretariat at Wuse Zone 7 and the committees Zone 1 office.
He, however, handed the completed form to a staff at the legal department of the federation for onward submission to the committee.
When The Guardian visited the committees’ secretariat located at No. 9 Arusha Crescent at the Wuse Zone 1 section of the FCT, the office was locked, while the telephone number of the committees’ liaison officer at the NFF was switched off.
Reacting to the development, an intending aspirant, Alhaji Abba Yola queried the rationale behind the decision of the committee to hoard the forms from certain aspirants, regretting that some candidates were being given undue advantage over the others.
“I have made my intension to run for the presidency at the NFF election, but I do not know up till now whether I would be running or not because I have not been allowed to get the form. I have made efforts to secure the form; if I get it fine, if I don’t get it that means I will not run.”
While the candidates are chasing the members of the electoral committee to buy and submit their forms, the arbitrators are protesting the proposed N70, 000 daily transport allowance whenever they meet, claiming that the approved amount could only cover their flight tickets from their various locations to Abuja and would not settle their local runs within Abuja.
A member of the committee, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that they have urged their chairman to formally convey their protest to the NFF leadership, adding that the federation was not encouraging the committee to do a decent job. The Guardian
