{"id":11502,"date":"2018-08-17T20:05:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T20:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=11502"},"modified":"2018-08-17T20:05:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T20:05:15","slug":"nff-saga-anxiety-as-court-fails-to-vacate-giwas-ex-parte-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=11502","title":{"rendered":"NFF saga: Anxiety as court fails to vacate Giwa\u2019s ex-parte order"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Federal High Court sitting in Jos on Friday failed to vacate the ex-parte granted Chris Giwa, one of the parties in the leadership crisis that has engulfed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).<\/div>\n
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Tuesday, August 21, promises to be another historic day for Nigerian Football as many fear a ban may descend on Nigeia from world governing football body, FIFA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A last-ditch effort by Sports Minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung, to meet FIFA in Switzerland to stave off a ban following an August 20, 2018 deadline to restore Amaju Pinnick as NFF President, was rebuffed by FIFA.<\/div>\n
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\nReplying to the letter seeking to meet FIFA leadership in Switzerland, the world football governing body wrote: “While we are aware of the seriousness and urgency of the matter, we regret to inform you that we are not in a position to respond favourably to your request for an appointment with the FIFA Leadership. In fact, the FIFA President is indisposed during the proposed period,\u201d stated FIFA in their response.
\n\u201cMoreover, we would Iike to recall that one member of the proposed delegation, Mr Chris Giwa, is currently under a worldwide ban, in accordance with the decision of the FIFA DiscipIinary Committee dated 10 January 2017 to extend the five\u2014year ban from taking part in any kind of football-related activity imposed by the Nigeria FootbaIl Federation\u2019s (NFF) Disciplinary Committee on 12 May 2016…
\n\u201cWe would Iike to emphasise that we normally communicate with and through our member associations, in this case the NFF under its Iegitimate President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick.
\n\u201cConsequently, we would be grateful to have any future correspondence be routed through the NFF directly,\u201d added FIFA, to reiterate its displeasure that the Minister wrote through Nigeria’s ambassador to Switzerland.\n<\/div>\n
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The Federal High Court had granted the order on June 5, 2018, which gave Giwa the impetus to pose as the President of the NFF in the case betweenYahaya Adama\/Obinna Ogba and Aminu Maigari\/Musa Ahmadu and two others.<\/div>\n
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The order had followed a Supreme Court judgment asking the lower court to again look at the matter between Yahaya group and Maigari\u2019s group for determination.<\/div>\n
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Following that order, Giwa moved into the NFF headquarters last month, a development that did not go down well with Giwa\u2019s rival, Amaju Pinnick, who rushed to the court with three motions on notice asking the court to vacate the order.<\/div>\n
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When the case came up on Friday, counsel to Pinnick, Mr Festus Ukpe, told the court that he had filed three motions on notice and was seeking the leave of court to move them.<\/p>\n

He told the court that the motions sought to ask the court to vacate the ex-parte order earlier granted Giwa on June 5, 2018 so that Nigeria could escape a ban from football activities as threatened by FIFA.<\/p>\n

But Giwa\u2019s counsel, Mr Habila Ardzard, raised an objection to Pinnick\u2019s motions, and notified the court of a pending appeal he filed before the Jos Court of Appeal in respect of the case.<\/p>\n

He explained that the appeal was challenging the ruling of Justice Musa Kurya which allowed him serve a photocopy of the said motions on notice, instead of original copies.<\/p>\n

Ardzard argued that any attempt by the judge to hear any of Pinnick\u2019s motions would amount to `”abuse of court processes\u2019\u2019 and “judicial rascality.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

“My Lord, this Honourable court has been informed of the said appeal before the Jos Court of Appeal, and by that. this court lacks the jurisdiction to continue with this matter pending the determination of the appeal.<\/p>\n

“This is the position of the Supreme Court and that of the Appellate court: if the lower court will do otherwise, it will only be setting itself on collision course with the Appex and Appellate Courts.<\/p>\n

“We hereby urge your lordship to adjourn the case pending the determination of the appeal by the appellate court,” he argued.<\/p>\n

Kurya, in his ruling, said that there were two posers – whether there was an appeal, and whether he could continue with the matter.<\/p>\n

In answering the two posers, the judge declared that he had resolved the two in favour of Giwa, and therefore decided to adjourn the case indefinitely.<\/p>\n

“Since there is an appeal before the appellate court, I don\u2019t want to be involved in any judicial rascally, therefore I hereby adjourn the case indefinitely,\u2019\u2019 he declared.<\/p>\n

This latest attempt is the third by Pinnick to convince the court to vacate the ex-parte order it granted Giwa.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the court\u2019s position had created anxiety in soccer circles following the threat by FIFA to ban\u00a0\u00a0Nigeria if the NFF leadership crisis is not resolved..<\/p>\n

FIFA had given Nigeria up to Monday, August 20, 2018 to resolve the NFF leadership crisis between Chris Giwa and Amaju Pinnick or face ban on all football matters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Federal High Court sitting in Jos on Friday failed to vacate the ex-parte granted Chris Giwa, one of the parties in the leadership crisis that has engulfed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Tuesday, August 21, promises to be another historic day for Nigerian Football as many fear a ban may descend on Nigeia from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5778],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}