Following the judgment of the Supreme Court on Friday over the lingering imbroglio bedeviling Nigeria Football Federation, lawyer of Ambassador Chris Giwa, Patrick Ikwento (SAN) has shed more light on the judgment by unequivocally declaring that Giwa is the authentic president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Ikwento told newsmen in Abuja over the weekend that “there is no ambiguities in the judgment . First and foremost let me start from the position of Festus Keyamo(SAN) lawyer to Amaju Pinnick. I understand his position, he lost the case. Keyamo’s position is understatement that the Supreme Court did not sack Pinnick.
“If the Orders of the Supreme Court are valid on what basis will Pinnick be occupying the office ? Pinnck is an illegal occupant of the house . An impostor. If a person forcefully enter your house and take possession of your house it does not conferred ownership of that house on that person it is as simple as that”
The Orders of the Federal High Court in Jos are very clear and it is basis of the judgment. For avoidance of doubt ,Ambassador Giwa was recognized by the Federal High Court as the authentic and de facto president of Nigeria Football Federation before he was wrongfully and forcefully removed from office ,right now the Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal and asked both parties to go back to the Orders of the Federal High Court ,Ikwento said.
He further disclosed “there is certainly no need for anybody to mislead the general public on the state of affairs.”
“The facts are these. Following the application of the Plaintiff s in the Suit, the Federal High Court made an Interim Order on 19 September 2014 recognising the Executive Committee elected on 25 August 2015 (led by Ambassador Chris Giwa) as valid; and further restrained the defunct Executive Committee whose tenure of office expired on 24 August 2014 (led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari) from conducting any Congress or Election to re-elect any other person to the same office.
Despite the subsistence of the above Orders, the Alhaji Aminu Maigari-led Committee proceeded to conduct the election wherein Amaju Pinnick was elected into Office, in flagrant disobedience of subsisting orders of Court. This being so, the Federal High Court consequently, set aside and nullified the purported election that brought in Amaju Pinnick, “same having been held in flagrant disobedience to the order of this Honourable Court made on 19thSeptember, 2014”.
This development prompted Amaju Pinnick to run to the then President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, for his intervention. Upon the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Plaintiff s discontinued the action on the understanding that the parties would settle their differences out of Court. It turned out that the intervention was a sham plot, so the Plaintiff s had to go back to Court and prayed the Court to re-list the Suit and also restore all the previous Orders made by it.
He insisted that Pinnick does not have the locus standi to ban Giwa from football because he was just an impostor and believe that FIFA is not a lawless body but will equally abide with the law of the nation if the need arises.
Pinnick Not minding the myriads of interpretation giving to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, the Nigeria Football Federation under the leadership of Amaju Pinnick has commended the decision of the apex court which referred Barrister Chris Giwa and his colleagues back to the Federal High Court, to start afresh a case brought before it on the 2014 elections. Reports had emerged morning of Friday, April 27 that the Supreme Court has ousted Pinnick from his office as NFF boss by nullifying the 2014 elections that brought him into office.
The alleged ruling was said to have also ordered Giwa to take over as president, but the NFF in a series of tweets, however, denied the reports, stating that the court ruling only asked that the case on the 2014 election at the Federal High Court be tried properly. Reacting on the matter, NFF 1st Vice President/Chairman, Legal Committee, Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi, said the NFF Board appreciated the reasoning of the apex court in refusing the prayers of the appellants, which if granted would have accord them some kind of legitimacy, against the backdrop of an ongoing administration of Nigerian Football which is at the cusp of taking Nigeria to the world’s greatest football event, the World Cup.
He disclosed that the NFF’s lawyers are confidently prepared to argue the case afresh and look forward to finally putting the matte
r to rest, and to prove to the world that Nigerian football can continue to be run in its orderly manner. He referred to the case as a mere distraction for Nigerian Football which ought not to have been instituted in the first place given the convention for resolution of football disputes. The 1st Vice President said: “We are law-abiding citizens of this great country, and we have no qualms about starting the case afresh.
The Supreme Court did the right thing in the circumstances, and while we must be careful not to discuss matters which are subjudice, we must note that the appellants have within the norms in sporting disputes, actually exhausted all legitimate channels in this matter, including arguing their position, and failing, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“Globally, the convention of football is that football matters should not be taken to civil courts. Instead, it should be taken to Arbitration as the appellants have already done in this matter with no success. That ordinarily should have been the end of the matter. However, as law-abiding citizens, the NFF is ready to follow this through, vindicate ourselves and continue with the peaceful and enormous progress that has come to defi ne Nigerian Football in the past few years.”