NFF Elections: Appeal Court To Rule On Jurisdiction Right

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday says it is ready to rule on whether or not it has jurisdiction over the matter before it by the applicants (Nigeria Football Federation and Amaju Pinnick) last week after proper filing of motion on Notice by the litigants.

The three justices; Biobele Abraham Georgwill, Mohammed Mustapha and Danlami Zama Senchi last Thursday ordered a stay of execution on the injuction of lower court exparte order for the Nigeria Football Federation Elections to go ahead on Friday in Benin City Edo State.

In the Court today (Wednesday), the Appeal is to counter the arguement of litigants' counsel on whether or not it has jurisdiction to attend to the matter before it particularly as there is no record of case file been transfered from the Federal High Court. 

The Court earlier today said that the preliminary objection submitted before it is premature without proper filing and should be properly filed before it can be attended to.

It then ordered respondents' counsel to put the applicants on three-day notice in accordance with the rule of Court of Appeal. 

Until proper filing of motion on Notice is carried out, then the Appeal Justices will have the chance to counter arguement raised by the counsel that they do not have the jurisdiction to attend to the case.

Should it be established that they lacked jurisdiction, the litigants can go ahead to get Friday's 30th September 2022 NFF elections annulled at the lower court as well as petitioning the three Justices in the Nigeria Judicial Council.

The Court of Appeal will determine the date for hearing of the case after proper filing of the motion on Notice.

The Federal High Court in an ex-parte order stopped the scheduled NFF Elective Congress in Benin City Edo State but Appeal Court ordered that the Elections should go ahead as scheduled.