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Vacate office or face contempt charge, SAN tells Pinnick’s  NFF

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Patrick I.N. Ikwueto, has warned the Amaju Pinnick-led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board that it must vacate office, following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, or face a contempt of court charge.

 

 

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Patrick I.N. Ikwueto, has warned the Amaju Pinnick-led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board that it must vacate office, following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, or face a contempt of court charge.

Last Friday, the apex court set aside a decision of the Appeal Court which nullified the rehearing of a case challenging the leadership of NFF.

A faction of the NFF, led by Chris Giwa, had approached the apex court to demand a re-hearing of an appeal suspended at a high court in Jos during the month of October, 2014.

The five-member panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, ordered the relisting of the case at the trial court in Jos where it was suspended in October 2014.

The court also declined making any pronouncement on the rightful occupant of the NFF leadership position.

But Ikwueto told sportinglife.ng that the Supreme Court ruling also restored all orders previously made by the High Court, including one allegedly removing Pinnick’s board.

He said: “I read what Festus Keyamo (SAN) posted on social media concerning the Supreme Court ruling and I understood his positions because he was the counsel to defendants and, having lost in the matter, he has to say something.

“But to make an argument that Supreme Court did not sack Pinnnick and his board was an understatement.

“If he agreed that the Supreme Court made an order re-listing the case and restored all the orders previously made by the High Court, the question one would be if the orders by the High Court setting aside the Congress at which Pinnick was elected, then under what colour of title, authority or legal basis would he occupy the office that he would not violate the law.

“Unless one is saying or suggesting that we can go on with the issue under self-help and that it doesn’t matter if there was an order of court or not he doesn’t care.

“But don’t forget that under Nigerian law by Section 287(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended: every person, authority anywhere in Nigeria is enjoined to enforce and obey judgement of the High Court.”

He warned that should members of Pinnick’s board fail to quit, they risk imprisonment for contempt. Ikwueto said: “If anybody wants to violate the court order, the law is there. We would activate the machinery of the law and have such persons committed to prison for contempt of court.”

He added that he expects Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung to enforce the Supreme Court ruling.

“The Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports is a responsible gentle man. I have not met him personally, but have seen him talking and how he conducts his affairs. I would be surprised if the minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who is supposed to be a law-abiding citizen, would see the court order
clearly and not obey it.”

Pinnick’s board has been locked in a leadership battle with the Giwa faction over who is charge of Nigerian football since 2014.

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