by Mark Bassey

The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), has sent a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), demanding for Aminu Maigari to be reinstated as president of the federation.

In the letter signed by the Deputy Secretary General of FIFA, Markus Kattner, the world football governing body also called for the suspended board members to be returned to office.

“We refer to your correspondence dated 7 August as well as information we received from different Nigerian football stakeholders, including the President Maigari,” the letter read.

“We take note of your explanations with regard to the meeting of the NFF held on 24 July 2014and it would appear that the said meeting didn’t comply with some statutory provisions (e.g deadlines for the convocation of the meeting and for the sending of the agenda). In addition, in a correspondence addressed to FIFA, Mr Maigari denied the course of events and complained that he had even not been given the possibility to answer the allegations against him.

“We have also been informed that members of the NFF Executive Committee decided to sanction two other Executive Committee members for six months and one year.

“By so doing, it seems the said members of the Executive Committee went beyond their prerogatives which is limited to suspend provisionally persons or organs until the following Congress during which the sanctions are confirmed or lifted.

“Finally, we also learnt that some members of the electoral committee and the electoral appeal committee duly elected by the Congress in November 2013 were removed from their position by the Executive Committee which is contrary to the segregation of powers.

“As stated in our letter dated 4 August 2014, it is regrettable that the situation has turned so confused while elections are planned to take place on 26 August 2014.

“The recent decisions of the Executive Committee are highly questionable with regard to the compliance with the statutes and should any be confirmed by the Congress.

“In the meantime, the different suspensions are affecting the electoral process by preventing persons to contest the elections.”

The NFF elections are scheduled to hold on August 26 and all the 13 members on the board, including Chris Green and Ahmed Yusuf will return to office till then.

ifreke

Ifreke Inyang is a public commentator and social media critic who has worked with a number of high profile publications across the country.