The Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State on Wednesday reinstated the Amaju Pinnick-led board of the Nigeria Football Federation, with the striking out of a case brought against it.
The court had in an earlier order ruled that the board’s election on September 30 in Warri, Delta State was an illegality.
The presiding judge, Justice Ambrose Alagoa, had said the board was elected in contravention of the court’s September 19 order.
It had told the NFF Congress not to go ahead with another Elective Congress, after the Chris Giwa-led board, which was elected in Abuja on August 26, had lodged a complaint.
Alagoa, while ruling on Thursday in a judgment, which reversed his earlier order, said he depended on the plaintiffs’ notice of discontinuance in the matter served some hours earlier.
The judge said based on the notice, he had to discard the ruling he had earlier prepared on the matter and which was set to be delivered.
He said: “The matter is hereby struck out and the order of October 23 is set aside.
“The motion on notice is struck out and the NFF board elected on September 30 stands as the substantive.”
Habila Hazard, counsel to the plaintiff, Yahaya Adama and Obinna Ogba, had at the hearing told the court that they were asked by well-meaning Nigerians to withdraw the suit.
They said those Nigerians had urged them to consider the overriding national interest.
Hazard said: “Since yesterday (Wednesday) after the court sitting, so many well-meaning Nigerians have intervened in the matter and appealed to the plaintiffs to withdraw it in the national interest.
“They have appealed to the plaintiffs to in the greater consideration of the national interest discontinue with the matter.
“The plaintiffs have decided in the national interest to discontinue with the matter in line with the pleas and that is why we filed a notice of discontinuance dated October 30.
“We hereby apply for the withdrawal.”
Danon Dashem, the defendants’ counsel, however protested the notice at that moment and said that it had the implication of arresting the ruling of the court earlier prepared by the judge.
“It has become a norm with some sports buffs to throw football fans into confusion from time to time by filing spurious claims in the court, only to change course by filing a notice of discontinuance when it suited them,” Dashem said.
He called on the court to discharge all its earlier decisions on the matter and to dismiss the suit based on the notice.
Alagoa, while making the order, said he suffered some personal losses sitting through the night to write the judgment only to have to discard it in the morning.
He however said he had to obey the law, which said that once there was a notice of discontinuance, the matter ceases to exist.
He said: “I spent the night writing my ruling.
“But the law says they can discontinue anytime, even if it hurts.
“It is the law to allow it at any moment it turns up.
“That is what the law says.”