NFF Leadership Crisis: Pinnick Insists On Keeping Mum

The new First Vice-President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Amaju Pinnick, last Tuesday in St Petersburg insisted that he was still keeping mum on the Nigerian football leadership crisis.
Pinnick, until some days ago President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), told newsmen he was not going to speak on the federation’s leadership crisis for now.
Tidesports source reports that the Pinnick-led NFF Executive Committee was removed after Youths and Sports Minister Solomon Dalung asked the federation to obey a Supreme Court order on the federation’s 2014 elections.
The Chris Giwa group, which had engaged the NFF leadership in a leadership tussle since 2014, had secured an ex-parte motion directing the Pinnick-led group to obey the court order.
Based on the motion by a Jos court, Dalung had directed NFF to comply and this had led to the Giwa group taking over the NFF secretariat in Abuja.
Since then Pinnick, who as a member of FIFA Organising Committee is presently on duty in Russia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, has remained silent on the issue.
However members of both groups have been engaged in a cross-fire of accusations and contentions.
“I am not going to say anything at all. Please, at least for now, I am not saying anything,’’ Pinnick told newsmen at the St Petersburg Arena.
He said he was at the moment in Russia only on duty for FIFA and would rather not allow the matter to bother him for now.
“I am on duty here for FIFA at the moment and will rather focus on that at the moment,’’ Pinnick who was the Match Commissioner of the France versus Belgium semi-final match in St Petersburg last Tuesday said.
Tidesports source reports that NFF’s lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has been leading the defence for Pinnick’s position on the matter since the issue snowballed into another round of crisis some days ago.