Barr. Iyke Igbokwe Questions FCT FA Electoral Procedures

Barr. Iyke Igbokwe Questions FCT FA Electoral Procedures ...says the Board Should Correct the Procedure or he Challenge it in Court By Admin One of the football stakeholders in FCT has frowned at the FCT FA Election process which according to him has capacity of affecting the outcome of the result and in extension affects the administration of the Nations Capital. Barrister Iyke Igbokwe who was at the FCT FA Extra Ordinary Congress held at Old Parade Ground last Friday as an observer urged the FCT FA to do the needful where necessary particularly the process in selecting the delegates that will vote on election day. With less than four months to the 2019 elections into the board of State Football Association (FA) across the federation, FCT FA might be heading into crisis as one of the stakeholders and team manager of Abuja based national club side, Barrister Iyke Leo Igbokwe has questioned the process leading to the elections. In a petition he submitted to the acting secretary of FCT FA, Mr Haruna Ilerika, dated February 27, Igbokwe, described the procedures and guidelines set out for June 13, 2019 FCT FA elections as alarming, saying it might lead Nigeria’s football into another round of crisis. He said Nigeria has become more politically matured in view of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections where the will of people prevailed across the country and urged that the maturity should be extended to football industry. “Nigerians have become more political matured and we have to extend that maturity into our own dear football industry which coincidentally our own state FA elections are coming up in June. I think it has become necessary to streamline our guidelines and procedure for the conduct of State FA elections so that what happened in the past where persons that were supposed to vote suddenly become delegates just to put some people in office. “I was lucky as team manager of a national club based in Abuja and affiliated to FCT FA, to attend last Friday’s extra-ordinary congress of the FCT FA as an observer and what I saw from resolutions was alarming and might throw Nigeria’s football into another round of crisis. To save the situation, I decided to write FCT FA of my observations. “The first observation was on the need to work with NFF’s statutes as the grand norm of football in the country. If you look at the Article 33B of NFF statutes-2010, it is clear that the composition of NFF executive committee comprises the president, vice president and 2nd vice president, who is the chairman of the Nigeria Premier League. “What I observed at the FCT FA’s Extra-ordinary congress if it is the same in all the State FA in the country, is that we will have the chairman, 1st vice chairman and 2nd vice chairman, that if he does not come through the way of election, the clubs will be not represented in the top three positions. “The clubs in every state are financiers of FA and that is why the chairman of the premier league is the 2nd vice chairman of NFF, so that they can have a say. I have made that observation to FCT FA to ensure that in the coming election, NNL club official should occupy the 2nd vice chairman position in line with NFF statutes.” Igbokwe also alleged that the chairmen of FCT Area Football Council whose tenure has since expired had been authorized to serve delegates in the FCT FA elections. “The second one is the age long practice of using wrong delegates to vote in football elections. In the FCT FA for instance, what I observed was that chairmen of FCT Area Football Council whose tenures had since expired have now been authorized to be the delegates in the FCT FA elections.”