FIFA gives Nigeria September 8 deadline

The world football governing body, FIFA, has issued a fresh suspension threat to Nigeria. FIFA Emergency Committee on Wednesday warned that Nigeria would be suspended with immediate effect from September 8 should there still be persons claiming to have been elected to the Nigeria Football Federation positions and occupying their offices by the stated date.

The fresh threat came via a letter sent from Zurich to the general secretary of the NFF, Musa Amadu, and signed by FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke on Wednesday. The letter emphasised that should the new deadline not be respected, the NFF will be automatically suspended until the board claiming to be elected vacates the premises of the NFF and the NFF general secretary is able to perform his work without interference.

The letter reads in part, “The emergency committee was briefed on the sequence of events of the last weeks and more on the circumstances which surrounded August 26, 2014 general assembly. It took note of the fact that president, one executive committee member and the general secretary had been put under police custody while the general assembly was supposed to decide on a new roadmap leading to the elections and to resolve the issue of electoral committees.

“The Emergency Committee learnt that despite the absence of the president, the Minister of Sports opened the general assembly whose agenda was soon after altered in order to organise immediate elections which led many delegates to leave the place and meet elsewhere.”

FIFA has also asked that the NFF executive committee as it was composed on August 26, 2014, meaning under the presidency of Aminu Maigari, should convene as soon as possible a first extraordinary general assembly to elect the members of the electoral committee and a second extraordinary general assembly in the shortest time possible allowed by law in order to proceed with the elections of new NFF office-bearers.

In an earlier letter sent on August 29, 2014, FIFA confirmed that it would not recognise the results of the August 26 elections and that the matter would be brought to the respective FIFA bodies should there still be persons claiming to have been elected and occupying the NFF offices at midnight on 1 September 2014. But on expiry of the deadline, the Chris Giwa-NFF members were still claiming to have been elected and were occupying the NFF premises.

On Wednesday, Giwa issued a warning to the Maigari-led NFF not to hold any assembly on Thursday (today) as the elections had already been held last week. The Maigari group have scheduled elections for Thursday.