NFF crisis: Giwa faction rejects Minister’s peace committee

The Barrister Chris Giwa-led faction of the Nigeria Football Federation has rejected the seven-man peace committee set up by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, to find a lasting solution to the crisis rocking the football house.
The Giwa faction, in a statement on Wednesday by the Chairman of Chairmen, Offing Johnson, said Nigerians should disregard the action of Dalung.
It said the setting up of the committee was done in bad faith.

The statement reads in full: “The attention of the NFF has been drawn to reports circulating in the media that the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung, has constituted a committee purportedly to resolve the NFF dispute.
“We urge Nigerians to disregard this action of the minister. Same lacking in good faith and calculated to hoodwink Nigerians
“In the first place, the minister is a party to the case in court as the 4th defendant and when the court by an Order made on 8th April 2016 restored all its previous orders including the order which nullified and set aside the election which purportedly produced Amaju Pinnick et al. The minister betrayed his partisanship in the dispute by wasting no time to hold brief for the Amaju Pinnick group in his erroneous and flawed public statement that the group was entitled to 30 days to appeal against the ruling of the court.
“The minister has thus lost the moral podium to midwife any settlement of the dispute. Secondly, the composition of the membership of the so called reconciliation committee leaves no one in doubt that it was constituted only for a hatchet job for the Amaju Pinnick group.
“Virtually all members of the committee are associates of the Amaju Pinnick group. For instance, Musa Amadu is not only a co-defendant with the minister in the case but is also the chairman of the Organising & Disciplinary Committee of the Amaju Pinnick group.
Barrister Okey Obi has made statements in many fora on behalf of the Amaju Pinnick group and has also appeared in court as counsel to the defendants.
“While Paul Bassey is known to be an avowed supporter of the Amaju Pinnick group. From the foregoing, no crystal ball is required to figure out that the so called reconciliation committee has a mandate to come out with a premeditated result.
“May we put it on record that the board of the NFF has no confidence in that committee and disassociates itself from its activities.”