Amaju Pinnick Group Shifts Elections to Sept. 20

By Admin …as NFF shifts elections from Sept 29 to 20 President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, appeared to have delivered a masterstroke in the battle for the soul of the game in the country with a shift in the date of NFF elections. However, experts of the game argued that holding an election on September 20th is against NFF statute. The polls was originally slated to hold on September 29 in Katsina but it has now been shifted by nine days as the electoral committee announced on Tuesday that the electorate would now cast their ballot on September 20. Our correspondent learnt that the shift in the date of the election was not unconnected with the tussle between the Pinnick-led board and Chris Giwa. Hearing in the suit filed by the club owner against the federation is billed to resume on September 25th at the Federal High Court Jos and a source told our correspondent that the shift in the date of the polls was a way of ensuring Giwa’s claim to leadership in the NFF would elapse and be overtaken by the next election, which would then have been only four days after the next court hearing. That argument is getting concrete by feelers from the Glass House that the said election that would render Giwa’s claim elapsed as it will now hold five days before the Jos court sits again. “It is about the Giwa’s case; the arguemenet put forward by a board memeber that this change of date, was due to the clash with the CAF Congress scheduled to hold in Morocco on September 29 is not true,” a source said. According to the new timetable, screening of candidates will now be done between 27th and 29th August, with names of candidates to be published on Thursday, 30th August. Protests and appeals will be heard and treated between 4th and 6th September, after same must have been submitted between 31st August and 3rd September. Publication of final list of candidates will be done on Friday, 7th September. Elections into the NFF Executive Committee 2018-2022 will take place on Thursday, 20th September 2018. The electoral committee also said in the event that any of the candidates to any of the offices becomes disqualified or incapacitated after being cleared by the Electoral Committee, the office will be reopened for a fresh nomination within a period of five (5) days before the elections.