Football
Colin Udoh, Special to ESPN 8y

Court declares Nigeria Football Federation board elections to be void

A court in Nigeria has declared the elections that brought the current board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) into office in September 2014 to be void.

The court re-listed a case filed by Chris Giwa in which he claimed to have been elected as president on Aug. 26, 2014, and sought to prevent any new elective congress.

It upheld orders including nullifying the election of the current NFF board.

FIFA had previously ruled Giwa's election invalid, mostly because of ineligible delegates, and ordered fresh elections to be carried out. Amaju Pinnick subsequently emerged as NFF president.

The NFF immediately filed an appeal against Friday's ruling, a motion to vacate the order and a motion for a stay-of-execution against the judgement. Because this was all done on the same day as the judgement, the status quo remains, meaning that Pinnick remains as NFF president until determination of the substantive suit.

"This is a sad one primarily because we have enjoyed a period of peace and have been able to work without the court-today-court-tomorrow situation of the last half of 2014," NFF vice president Seyi Akinwunmi said on Friday. "We have filed for stay-of-execution and that means the status quo remains and anything done is done at the actors' peril.

"I can assure football-loving Nigerians that there is no reason to panic as we are in full charge and there is no trouble whatsoever. There is no order for the Giwa group to take over the Glass House. In fact many of his so-called board members have called to dissociate themselves from the matter."

Giwa had withdrawn the case when FIFA threatened to ban Nigeria. But in January, after a meeting called by current sports minister Solomon Dalung aimed at reconciling the NFF descended into recriminations, he re-filed his lawsuit.

Nigeria now face the prospect of a FIFA ban, which could put their World Cup qualification hopes in jeopardy.

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