NFF Leadership Tussle: CAF, FIFA Presidents Are Beneficiaries of Corruption...NANF

FIFA, CAF Presidents beneficiaries of corruption – NANF ...Ignore induced pressure of FIFA threat, Dalung told ...Pinnick has to vacate CAF, FIFA positions now On Saturday July 14, National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF)'s letter to the minister of youth and sports on how FIFA president and Amaju Pinnick as well as press made an arrangee press world conference in Russia aimed at creating tension in Nigeria. The letter was made available to BSN Sport, here is the content. “We thank you sincerely for standing on the side of truth and justice by insisting that parties in the recent Supreme Court judgment in suit number SC731/2016 should comply with the judge. There was no other option to this noble decision as both parties have benefited from the legal process on its way to the Supreme Court and the NANF indeed emphasised this is our letter to your esteemed office dated 22nd of May 2018. The campaign for FIFA ban has been a lucrative business for a section of the media and football stakeholders who are perpetual looters of our football treasury over time. NANF implores you to remain unshaken and ignore FIFA ban threatened by Mr. Gianni Infantino the FIFA President on the 13th July 2018 in an arrangee question and answer session segment of a press briefing in Russia. We assure you sir, that the threat to ban Nigeria is an empty one, conceived to shield corruption in Nigeria Football which the FIFA President himself and CAF President are beneficiaries of, arm twist and intimidate the Federal Government of Nigeria. NANF therefore urges your esteemed office not to dissipate energy in this matter because we stakeholders can handle it. Disputes and disagreements are inevitable in any corporate organisation and if properly resolved within the ambit of the law, it goes a long way to deepen, strengthen and properly structure the system that’s why England is running the most successful professional league in the world today. They went through the mill and resolved their disputes within the ambit of their laws. The issue of undue interference by FIFA in the internal affairs of the NFF has been resolved in 2011 vide a letter dated 9th of August 2011 from the former Honourable Minister of sports Suleiman Yusuf to FIFA and former FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s response of 1st September 2011 after the crisis that engulfed Nigeria Football in 2010. This current crisis is a child’s play to the 2010 crisis that led to the General Dominic Oneya Committee when it was set up to reach amicable resolutions, if that report had been implemented we should have averted the current crisis. It is in the light of the above the NANF state as follows:- That NANF has formally informed FIFA in a letter dated 11th of June 2018 to steer clear of the current situation in Nigeria having been a party with the federal government to proffer solution to our internal crisis in 2011. That the positions Amaju Pinnick occupies in FIFA and CAF were fraudulently acquired having not been improperly elected NFF President in the first instance and that NANF demands unequivocally he be relieved of such positions forthwith and particularly since a criminal investigation has been launched against Amaju Pinnick for alleged N15 billion diversion of sponsorship funds of the NFF by Coach James Peters and the over N4 billion Delta state Sports Commission funds alleged by NANF was diverted under Amaju Pinnick. The norm in FIFA/CAF is that any of its Executive member under criminal investigation steps down until such investigation is concluded. That NANF also unambiguously made it clear to FIFA that she is unduly interfering in NFF internal affairs and attempt to cover up or shield in any manner whatsoever corruption and its tendencies in Nigeria that the NANF will have no option than to file a suit in the international court of justice in the Hague against FIFA. And that finally the NANF has filed a recent action in court dated 5th May 2018 in suit number FHC/L/CS/947/2018 to restrain the purported electoral committee set up by the Amaju Pinnick board from conducting any election arising from the decision of the recent Supreme Court judgment. Further to the above the NANF urge you to be steadfast and continue to protect the integrity, dignity and sovereignty of Nigeria.