Despite the confusion and drama that preceding the NFF Elective Congress on Tuesday, Amaju Pinnick of Delta State emerged the new chairman of the NFF, taking over from Aminu Maigari.
Dikko Shehu, who was believed to be the anointed candidate of Aminu Maigari did not feature. He was no where near the Golden Tulip Hotel venue of the congress.
Although, he had previously sent a message that he was held up in traffic at Lokoja on the eve of the election, speculations were rife that he never left Abuja as he was allegedly prevented by security operatives.
In accordance to the provisions of the electoral act, he could not be voted for in absentia. The congress expected to begin at 10 am did not commence till 12:55 when the national anthem was rendered.
The delay in commencement was also linked to speculations that the NFF management committee may have been served with the Jos High Court injunction obtained by Chris Giwa some days ago.
There was also an alleged arrest of the chairman of the electoral committee, Samson Ebonhe.
The drama did not end there. Dominic Irofa, one of the presidential aspirants, had earlier called for the boycott of the elections, claiming that the results were pre determined.
He produced a list titled “The official and approved consensus list”, to back his claims. The results of the elections almost tallied with the list, even though, the chairman of the electoral committee allayed the fears of predetermined elections.
The exemptions were on technical issues whereby some candidates had to be dropped since their zones had produced other principal members.
Those that lost out on account of this were Oswald Atunice of Cross River State, Adepoju Olaleye of Oyo State, Balele Aminu of Katsina and Okenna Chidi Ofo of Enugu State.
The election of the president had to go into the second ballot before Amaju emerged the winner.
In the first ballot, he polled 25 of the possible 44 votes to beat to the second position, Taiwo Ogunjobi who had nine votes. Dominic Iorfa polled six while Amanze Uchegbulam with four votes placed fourth.
The duo of Mike Umeh and Abba Yola had no vote. In accordance to Article 16.2 of the electoral act, a winner in the presidential election requires two-third majority which translates to 29 votes.
Amaju therefore required four additional votes to win on the first ballot. The last three contestants were therefore eliminated for a triangular contest involving Amaju, Ogunjobi and Iorfa. A simple majority was required. Amaju coasted to an easy victory with 32 votes, followed by Iorfa who had eight votes while Ogunjobi had a pitiable four votes.
There and then, the losers stormed out of the hall. In the next election for the position of first Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi of Lagos State coasted to an easy win, poling 30 votes as against eight by Adamu Shehu, four by Emeka Inyama and two for Suleyman Muazu.
Emeka Inyama however remains on board till January 2016 to serve out his tenure as the chairman of the Nigeria National League.
The election of ordinary board members also had its fair share of drama. Since a geographical spread had to be maintained, following the emergence of Amaju as President, the South South zone had to reduce the number of board members from two to one.
Jarret Tenebe who was absent, reduced the contestants from five to four. Two others, Abel Ehigie and Lucky Ewa stepped down for Christopher Green who eventually had 26 votes.
However, speculations were rife that an election ought not to have taken place in the zone since Amaju already comes from the zone. There will therefore be 15 board members instead of 14.
The South West Zone also had a reduction in the number of candidates to be elected since it has produced the first Vice President.
Therefore, Ayodeji Tinubu who is also from the same Lagos State with Akinwunmi statutorily got knocked out as no state can produce two board members.
In the jostling for position in the South West Zone, the three horse race involving Olaleye Adepoju (Oyo State), Sunday Dele Ajayi (Ondo) and Adesina Majekodunmi (Ogun) was won by Ajayi with 35 votes.
In the North Central zone, Agara Silas of Nasarawa State withdrew, leaving the trio of Suleiman Yahaya Kwande (Plateau State), Ahmed Yusuf “Fresh” (Niger State), and Bitrus Bewarang (Plateau State) to contest.
The duo of Suleman Yahaya Kwande and Ahmed Yusuf “Fresh”, members of the Maigari board, returned with 38 and 34 votes respectively. Sharif Rabiu Inuwa was returned unopposed for North West Zone.
In the North West Zone, Sharif Rabiu Inuwa was returned unopposed for the single seat available. Felix Anyasi Agwu won the sole seat for the East with 26 votes.
