An Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Donatus Okorowo on Friday ruled that the Nigeria Football Federation is not known to Nigerian laws and barred anyone from parading himself or herself as an officer of the illegal body.
According to the judge, since the Nigeria Premier League is a derivative of the NFF, the illegality of the foundation obliterates the structure on it.
The learned trial judge ruled that since FIFA statutes which has been used to threaten Nigeria in the past has no force of law in the country, he declared that the NFF and the NPL were by logic illegal.
The matter that brought this judgment to the fore was brought to it by the former President of the Nigeria Referees Association, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, who was unceremoniously disqualified from contesting the chairmanship position of NPL in January 2010.
Okorowo ruled that the disqualification of Jaja is not only illegal, null and void but a calculated attempt by the NPL electoral committee to undermine his person and that the denial has injured his interest as a stakeholder in Nigerian football.
Jaja in his experte motion brought before the court prayed the court to determine the legality of NFF and NPL against the backdrop of the fact that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria only recognises the Nigeria Football Association according to the Laws of the Federation (2004).
In the course of the matter, the NFF had argued that FIFA and NFF Statutes which are the platform for the regulation of football matters in the country provided that any aggrieved person in football should settle such grievances within the avenues provided by the statutes which is the arbitration committee and has no right to take football matter to a civil court of law, noting however, that such court has no jurisdiction to entertain the mater.
Okorowo ruled that his court has the jurisdiction to hear the case and therefore, averred that Jaja has the fundamental right to take his case to a civil court considering the fact that the Act establishing the NFA stipulated that it can sue and be sued as a corporate organisation.
Okorowo ruled that the Corporate Affairs Commission only incorporated NFA and not NFF and therefore, NFF is illegal by law.
He said that FIFA is an association that can only be obeyed but its statutes are not domesticated by the Nigerian Law and to that extent, has no force in law in Nigeria according to Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution on treaties with other countries or institutions.
Okorowo said because NFF has not been domesticated by the National Assembly, it should wind up because it is not recognised by the law and therefore, its activities are illegal, null and void.
Okorowo noted that NFF and NPL were not fair to Jaja as his disqualification was done in bad faith after meeting the entire requirements set out in the guidelines and timetable, just as he said that NPL should wind up.
He said: ‘’The plaintiff was not given reasons for his disqualification and no communication was extended to him for such action. The action by the electoral committee was done to frustrate the plaintiff. Anybody that operates with the void statutes cannot operate and authorized the plaintiff lawyer to file case against the process.’’
On the legality of NPL, Okorowo ruled that both the NFL (a predecessor of the NPL) and the NPL are illegal because as at the body that established it, the NFF, was illegal as at that time and therefore, cannot operate under the law.
Okorowo warned that nobody should thenceforth parade himself as President of NFF or Chairman of NPL as such a person(s) would be incurring the wrath of the law.
He ordered the counsel to the plaintiff to return to his court if they found anybody parading himself or themselves as president of NFF or Chairman of NPL.
The suit had been on in the last two years.
It would be recalled that the National Association of Nigerian Footballers had secured a similar judgment against the NFF in a Lagos Federal High Court presided over by Justice Okon Abang.