By Dorcas Jonah, Victor Okoye
A cross-section of football stakeholders on Tuesday in Abuja promised to reconcile the different parties in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) leadership crisis in order to bring development to the sport.
The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, while briefing newsmen at the end of a meeting, said the promise was the stakeholders’ resolution.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dalung spoke on behalf of the stakeholders after the meeting, which he convened.
He had in attendance over 20 members of the football family, and the meeting was tagged “Stakeholders Roundtable on the State of Governance of Nigeria Football’’.
The minister said the meeting was necessitated by the current crisis in Nigeria football.
“The football family has faced some challenges relating to leadership in recent times.
“Today, we decided to invite elders in the football family to help us look into the issues, discuss them and possibly suggest the way forward.
“After brainstorming and a thorough discussion of issues, we have reviewed and analysed almost everything that relates to peace and unity in the football family.
“The stakeholders in the football family have resolved that as elders they are going to look into the crisis in the NFF and reconcile the different parties so as to allow Nigerian football to grow,’’ Dalung said.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Sanusi, the General Secretary of NFF, on Tuesday in Abuja said claims that the federation’s Glass House secretariat was under lock and key were untrue.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Department of State Services (DSS) operatives had on Monday stormed the NFF secretariat with orders to restore normalcy to the place.
They were later joined by Sanusi, who said he received a letter from the Office of the Minister of Justice to the effect that Nigeria would respect FIFA’s position on the matter.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino had stated on the sidelines of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia that the global body only recognised Amaju Pinnick as the NFF President.
Three weeks ago, a group led by Chris Giwa had stormed the NFF secretariat to take control on the strength of a court ruling.
However, with the new directive, the NFF Executive Committee led by Pinnick has been restored to office.
“As you can see, there is no problem, as activities are running smoothly and everyone is going about his or her business at the Glass House,” Sanusi told NAN.
“I don’t know where these rumours about the NFF headquarters being under lock and key is coming from, but I can assure you that it is certainly not true.
“I will therefore advise all those peddling such rumours to please desist from this,” he added.
NAN also reports that NFF staff were seen moving in and out of the office doing their regular work with some operatives of the DSS stationed outside the NFF Secretariat.
