"There Is No Court Order Restraining NFF From Holding Congress" - Claimant Replies Pinnick

"There Is No Court Order Restraining NFF From Holding Congress" - Claimant Replies Pinnick 

By Niyi Busari

The applicant, Seigha Obiene, that dragged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) before the Federal High Court, Yenogoa, Bayelsa state has stated that there is no longer court order restraining them from holding Congress.

The Court had in December 2021 ordered and restrained the Federation from holding Congress. The order, according to the Claimant has been vacated to allow them hold elections as scheduled.

Meanwhile, the President of NFF, Amaju Pinnick on Tuesday in a press statement stated that the Annual General Assembly will be held once the court serve their lawyers notice permiting them to do so. "As I speak, we are making arrangements to hold the Annual General Assembly once the court communicates to our attorney the Notice of Discontinuance of the two cases that have been delaying the convocation of the Congress." The statement reads.

Reacting to Pinnick, the former Second Vice-president of NFF, Victor Baribote labelled it as lame excuse insisting that no court order is stopping them from holding the Congress.

"There is no way the judge will serve the judgement to the defendants' lawyers. It is the party that went to court that normally serve the processes on them. The court has asked parties to go and resolve and if they have resolved the matter, they can only come to court that they have resolved. 

"The Congress men who are the second defendant (and part of NFF) in this matter have met with us (applicants) and resolved and that was the order of the court. And on our part, we have gone back to court to file that we have resolved the matter. So, the NFF dont need to wait for court to serve them. Have they been served by court in this case before now? If they dont want to hold election, they should look for better excuse to tell Nigerians because all parties have been duly served.

 He added, "The defense of the NFF is the document the Claimant filed in Court for them to prove that there is nothing like contempt of court because the same person who has the right to ask court to try them for contempt has withdrawn the case and served all parties. So, there is no matter in Court stopping NFF from holding Congress.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari through the Ministry of Sports wrote to Pinnick to make sure that the NFF September elections are held as scheduled.