NFF CRISIS: ONE NATION, TWO PRESIDENTS!... UMEH SAYS MAIGARI REMAINS IMPEACHED

The drama over the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is not over with the Acting President of the Federation, Mike Umeh, still laying claims to the top position despite Aminu Maigari’s return to office yesterday.

Maigari was cleared to return to his position as the NFF president by the Minister of Sports/Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC) last Friday on the orders of world football governing body, FIFA.

But Umeh, who led some other board members to occupy the office of the NFF president early yesterday before Maigari arrived, insisted that the executive committee would not go back on their decision to impeach Maigari.

Umeh said the reinstated NFF president was acting alone and would not be allowed to function as the president of the federation because he had been impeached and dismissed from the board.

“He came to me and we exchanged greetings. We are not enemies, but exchanging pleasantries does not change our decision. We still stand on our decision at the last board meeting he chaired, where he was impeached by the board.

“Yes he has met with me on two occasions, we are not enemies, what we are doing is defending an institution.

Majority of the board members have said that Maigari has been provisionally impeached pending on the ratification by the Congress and we stand by that decision.

“We are mindful of a letter from FIFA and that is why we have gathered for a meeting to articulate our points and reply them. He can come to the NFF, it is up to him; he is on his own because a tree cannot make a forest.

“Let’s see how he can take a decision without the members; we are on the majority and there must be a quorum before he could hold any meeting.

“What we did was based on our statutes. FIFA has rules and regulations guiding football and we are representing them here. They cannot only listen to one individual. That is why we want to meet and communicate to them our own decision on their advice.”

According to Umeh, "if Maigari came to the NFF secretariat because the minister instructed him, what the minister has done by implication is interference because it was not the government that asked us to impeach him.”

“This is what he did to Sani Lulu and Ibrahim Galadima so his own cannot be an exemption. Nobody likes crisis, we have told him that if he wants a soft landing, he has to resign and he agreed with our suggestion at the stakeholders’ meeting. Of course I saw his resignation letter dated August 12 even though I do not have a copy of it here.”