Delta Vs NFF: South South Chairmen Pull Out of All NFF Activities, Pass Vote of No Confidence on Rep

Delta Vs NFF: South South Chairmen Pull Out of All NFF Activities, Pass Vote of No Confidence on Rep

….Says NFF Create Artificial Crises To Install Tony Okowa

By Niyi Busari

The Chairmen of the Football Associations in different five states from the South South zone of Nigeria met in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State and collectively rejected Nigeria Football Federation decision to set up a Normalization Committee to take charge of the Delta State Football Association.

The five states which consist of Edo, Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Bayelsa alleged that the NFF is trying to create crisis where there is none to install the Delta State Governor's brother who doubles as the state Commissioner of Sports, Mr Tony Okowa as the Chairman, Delta State Football Association.

The chairmen added that the NFF should constitute an arbitration panel to resolve this dispute between Mr Tony Okowa and the Delta State Football Association.

Rising from the meeting, the chairmen released a communique which reads;

" It has come to our attention that the President of the NFF Mr. Amaju Pinnick, the Chairman of Chairmen Mr Ibrahim Gusau and the South South zonal coordinator Mr Emmanuel Ibah relying on Article 8 (2) of FIFA Statutes 2019 has set up a Normalisation Committee to manage the affairs of the Delta State Football Association.

" It is our firm view that in the absence of any crisis in Delta State Football Association prior to the constitution of this Normalisation Committee, and in addition to the fact that the said Article 8 (2) has not been adopted by the Congress of the Nigeria Football Federation, their reliance on the said Article 8 (2) of the FIFA Statutes is misplaced.

"As far as we are concerned, what the aforesaid persons have done is to create, an artificial crisis, which they then relied on to constitute the Normalisation Committee with the sole design of installing Tony Okowa the Executive Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission as the Chairman of the Delta State Football Association.

"This, in our opinion, is a dangerous precedent that can only lead to undermining the supremacy of Congress.

"Relying on article 13 (1) (f) of the Statutes of the NFF, we request the NFF to immediately constitute an arbitration panel to resolve this dispute between the aforementioned persons and the Delta State Football Association.

The South South FA chairmen threatened to boycott all NFF activities.

"Pending the resolution of this issue, we the undersigned Chairmen of the Football Associations in the South South Zone of Nigeria shall boycott all NFF events.

Due to his inability to resolve the Delta State FA's internal issue, the chairmen expressed disappointment and passed a vote of no confidence on the representative of the zone, Mr Emmanuel Ibah.

"We are also disappointed with the actions of our zonal coordinator Mr. Emmanuel Ibah in the handling of this matter. He has abdicated his duties and responsibilities as the representative of the Zone.
Consequently, we hereby pass a Vote of no confidence on him. Henceforth he ceases to represent the South South geopolitical zone in the NFF executive committee.

The communique which is jointly signed by the five chairmen namely:
Barr Christopher Green, Rivers State FA Chairman, Mr. Atuake Oswald. Cross Rivers FA Chairman, Barr. Poubeni O. Ogun, Bayelsa state FA chairman, Mr. Edema Fuludu, Delta state FA chairman, and Hon. Henry O. Asemota, Edo state FA chairman