Chairman of FC Taraba, Tijani Babaginda has decried his suspension by club owners for accepting to work in the committee set up by the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Chris Giwa.
Reacting to the suspension, Babaginda wondered what he had done to deserve a suspension from the body, stressing that as far as he knows he did not contravene any of the laid down rule of the association to deserve a suspension.
He maintained that as a citizen of Nigeria the constitution allows him to associate with whoever he chooses to without incurring the wrath of anybody.
“I am still at a lost to why they said they have suspended me and the other persons. I have not in any way go against their laid down rules that I know of, so I am still waiting to know why I am been suspended.
“Or, are they telling me that as Tijani Babaginda I do not have the right to associate with whoever I chose to?, then, that is infringing on my right and I will not take that at all.
“Whatever thing they said about the appointment was an advice sent through a text and that should never be used as an excuse to suspend anybody.
“To underscore the fact that there is an agenda to this whole thing, the story was all over the media before even they made the suspension known to me. This is a dirty game and I do not expect that the club owners would condescend to this level because they want to fight some people fight,”
The former Super Eagles international stressed that he will serve in the committee as long as his service is needed as he does not have anything against Giwa, and he expect that his friends and associates should respect his position.
“The least I expect from my friends who are not pleased that I am serving in the committee to respect my position just as I have a great deal of respect for their own position. But we should not take it to the level that the club owners are taking it to,”
‘The other day some people wrote that i was arrested by men from the EFCC for assisting Giwa in embezzling some funds. This is the extent these people can go to fight me just because i accepted to work for Giwa. It has gone to show their desperation and prove that their motive for this struggle is absolutely bad,”
The club owners have teamed up with their arch enemy, the LMC to fight against the administration of Chris Giwa and have agreed to pull out their clubs from the league until the Jos born ‘Real’ owner vacate the glass house. The members of the Nigeria referees association have also joined in the gang up.