NPL Orders Fresh Chairmanship Election

Davidson Owumi’s removal as chairman of the Nigeria Premier League has been upheld by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The court also ordered that one has to be a member of the board to contest as chairman, and that elections into the positions of Chairman and, Subsequently, NPL Chairman are to be conducted within 30 days.

Owumi got in by being elected Chairman of chairmen.

Owumi was elected in May 2010, but the process was challenged by his rival Victor Baribote, who contested Owumi’s eligibility. The matter was eventually referred to the Nigeria football federation, NFF, which set up an Arbitration Panel chaired by Justice Ibidapo-Obe, who upheld the protest by baribote and ruled that fresh elections be held. But Owumi refused to be bound by the ruling, claiming it was non-binding.

Counsel to Owumi, Sunday Ameh, had in his submission prayed the court to set aside the resolution of the arbitration panel set up by the first defendant (NFF) for lack of merit and urged it to uphold the stipulations of the electoral statutes that the appeal panel was the last resort in matters arising from the election.

In his ruling, however, Justice Kolawole dismissed the submission, stressing that the plaintiff failed to prove on point of law the supremacy of the electoral statute over the statute of the NFF in the overall matters concerning the running of football in the country.

He maintained that since the NFF statute and that of FIFA are superior to the NPL’s, the first defendant has the legal right to set up the arbitration panel, which ruled against the eligibility of the plaintiff.