Chairman of the splinter Nigeria Football Association, (NFA) Jarret Tenebe, has described the meeting called by the Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, as one that will delay his group’s decision to take over the Glass House, in view of the fact that since the Federal High Court judgment that confirmed the illegality of Nigeria Football Federation, the Aminu Maigari-led team has no right to the secretariat again.
According to Tenebe: “If they believe in the court system, let them respect the orders of the court which is clearly made by the judge, go on appeal and if they win, they come back and resume their charade.
“For now, they must respect the court order and stop going to the secretariat, which is a public place, while the minister concretely and urgently activate the NFA Act in line with the court’s orders while putting other steps in place.
“The court order remains as a positive step to the redemption of the country’s football, which has suffered severe decay in the last six to seven years.
“The judgment has vindicated my group in the fight to rescue the soul of the country’s football, which has been in the custody of hirelings that have no plans for the sport that give the 150 million citizens of this country joy.”
He said the call on the Aminu Maigari-led illegal NFF to quit the Glasshouse headquarters of the NFA was to allow well-meaning Nigerians that have ideas that would uplift the country’s football to come in to salvage the sport.
Tenebe insists that Maigari and his men were not under duress when they deposed to an affidavit in a Federal High Court in Lagos denouncing the NFA and claiming that the illegal NFF is a private organization, which does not depend on the government for its funding whereas it is evident that the Federal Government has remained the sole sponsor of the body under the auspices of NFA while they spend the funds in the name of NFF, a body which does not exist, which a court has adjudicated on.
He added: “I am very glad with the judgment, especially at the time it came.
“I tell you since some Judges resolved into striking out football cases in their courts with the flimsy excuses that football matters are not tried in the ordinary court, some of us lost hope in the courts but this judgment, which was delivered at a time people forgot that such a crucial case was lying in court, has rekindled our hope in the judiciary.”
The Edo State born football administrator argued that Maigari and his men are aware that they are illegally occupying the country’s football secretariat and that was the reason they embarked on frivolous spending of funds meant for the development of football in Nigeria.
He noted that they are waiting for the minister’s Lagos meeting to decide if they will still embark on chasing Maigari and his team away from the Glass House secretariat as their stay a day longer in that office would not be tolerated as it is a violation of the court judgment, adding: “The two meetings they held there on Monday and Tuesday is a slap on the court.”
He recalled that football loving Nigerians are anxiously waiting for the implementation of the Report of the Dominic Oneya Committee for the Reform of Nigerian Football and maintained that the NFA has been patient but would run out of patience if the National Sports Commission treats the judgment with kid gloves.
Justice Donatus Okorowa on Friday declared the Nigeria Football Federation and its creations illegal, directing that anybody that parades himself as president of NFF or chairman of Nigeria Premier League, should be dragged to his court to face contempt charges.
While delivering the two and half hours judgment in the case filed by former President of Nigerian Referees Association, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, Okorowa also rebuffed claims that football matters cannot be taken to ordinary court, noting that FIFA statutes is not domesticated in Nigerian Law and as such cannot be used to decide matters involving the country’s football stakeholders’ rights and privileges.