Intrigues continue to characterise the race to head Nigerian football as a letter released by sports ministry on Monday have raised serious moral questions, reports Pius Ayinor
There was serious confusion concerning the General Assembly of the Nigeria Football Federation billed to hold in Abuja on Tuesday as the NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, was arrested and detained hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin in the Federal Capital Territory.
Maigari who was billed to preside over the meeting was picked up Tuesday morning by security operatives along with the NFF General Secretary Musa Amadu and board member Chris Green. But the arrests followed a letter of resignation allegedly written by Maigari and which was sent to media houses late on Monday by Special Adviser, Media, to Minister of Sports, Mr. Patrick Omorodion.
The letter stated that Maigari had decided to resign from office to enable peace return to the Nigerian football system. The letter dated August 12, 2014, also indicated that Maigari would not contest for any elective office when the elections are held for the NFF executive committee. But that letter has become a subject of serious allegations against the top officials of the sports ministry bothering on forgery and manipulation.
Friends and aides of Maigari have stated that the sports ministry officials deleted a key word with a pen which changed the true wording of the letter. An aide of the NFF president who called The PUNCH on Tuesday told our correspondent that the word “elective” was deleted from the letter in a bid to mislead the public.
He said, “What we have is a clear case of forgery; this is not fair and unbecoming of people in such position of authority. What Maigari wrote in his letter was that he would no longer contest and was resigning but clearly stated that it would be after the elective congress.
“By deleting the key word, they fraudulently gave the impression that his resignation took effect from Monday but that’s not true. The ploy is to ensure that he did not preside over the meeting of Tuesday or the one leading to the election. That word was cancelled with a pen and that is forgery and criminal.”
The SA to sports minister, Omorodion told The PUNCH that he could not say anything about the deleted word as he sent out a letter as he received it.
“The key thing is that Maigari resigned. I can’t say much about that aspect of the letter because the meeting was held between the minister and Maigari alone. So I would not know if Maigari cancelled that part himself when the minister drew his attention to the word because he was supposed to have resigned before now going by the agreement reached.
“But in any case, we must not also forget that the tenure of Maigari’s board expired on August 25th, 2014 which means that he ceased to be the president on the 26th.”
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On Tuesday, Abuja was full of drama following Maigari’s arrest. An independent observer in Abuja told The PUNCH that some state FA chairmen defied threats that they would be shot by security operatives at the Chida Hotel area in Abuja to march in solidarity for Maigari.
The witness said, “At first they blocked them from leaving the hotel premises and NFF secretariat but the FA Chairmen fought their way out and drove into town. They were again stopped on the way and later released to continue their journey to the SSS office. They have left for the SSS office now and have made it clear that Maigari be released or nobody else will preside over the congress despite the intimidation.”
The assembly was meant to agree on an election date but The PUNCH learnt that some very top officials of the sports ministry were pushing for elections to hold on Tuesday despite FIFA warning against that. The world football governing body had stated that Maigari should lead the NFF congress.
The Secretary to the Nigerian government Anyim Pius Anyim had resolved with sports minister, Dr. Tammy Danagogo, Maigari and some other key football administrators on Sunday that a non-elective congress should take place on Tuesday to design a road map for elections into the NFF executive committee not later than two weeks from Tuesday.
By about 6pm on Tuesday the Minister was at the Chida Hotel to declare the congress open in company with NFF secretary, Amadu. Followers of the events in Abuja say it was a way of legitimising the meeting. FIFA reaction to the meeting in Abuja on Tuesday will largely determine how Nigerian football will be treated at the international level in the coming weeks. (Punch)[eap_ad_3]