The Federal High Court, Abuja Division, yesterday, struck out the case of fraud brought against the President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick.
The court made the decision following an application by the Federal Government to withdraw its case against Pinnick and others accused of mismanaging money got from the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA).
The federal government had in May arraigned Pinnick and four others on 18 counts for allegedly diverting the sum, which was given to the NFF as fees for appearing at the last Russia 2018 World Cup.
The five officials, including the NFF Secretary, Sunusi Mohammed; the First Vice-President, Seyi Akinwumi; the Secnd Vice-President, Shehu Dikko and an Executive member, Yusuff Fresh, were accused of misappropriating N4 billion without the approval of the NFF.
They were also alleged to have contravened the law by failing to declare their assets.
The Special Presidential Investigation Panel arraigned them for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP).
President Muhammadu Buhari has since dissolved the panel, then led by Okoi Obono-Obla. Obono-Obla is himself wanted for allegedly forging a WAEC certificate.
“The prosecution withdrew the charges against the defendants. And so we asked that the case be withdrawn. The court invoked section 355 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act to withdraw the charges,” a lawyer representing the NFF officials, Mohammed Katu, said yesterday.
The section quoted empowers the prosecution to withdraw its charges against the defendant where necessary.
This trial is, however, separate from that being conducted by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, against Mr Pinnick and others.
Meanwhile, former chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Chief Baribote Rumson, has described yesterday’s decisin by the Federal High Court to strick out the fraud allegations as “the hight of illegality.”
Baribote, while reacting to the development in a telephone chat with Daily Sunsports, said: “Five people were accused (Pinnick, Sanusi, Dikko, Fresh, and Seyi Akinwunmi). Can you discharge and acquit somebody who did not appear before a law court? The person you discharged was not arraigned before a court. And everybody knows that it is only a judge sitting in a court that can acquit an accused. They did not apply for bail, so where is the justice? “We are all stakeholders in football, and we must not allow the case to die. For me, it is not the end of the matter. What ever we do must be for football development, but this has opened a pandora of issues.”