From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Sports on Tuesday read the riot act to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over the protracted crisis rocking some state associations, ordering the federation to quash the harmonisation committee and revert to the statute.
Chairman Reps committee, Ekene Abubakar Adams, dropped the directive during a parley with the leadership of the federation at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday.
In his introductory remarks, Adams had angrily announced that his Committee received three petitions from football stakeholders from Plateau State association, complaining about the harmonisation committees and another for suspension by the federation.
He noted that the decision to issue the ultimatum was based on the federation violating its statute, arguing that since setting up a normalisation committee is not contained in the NFF statute, it is not idle to apply such a measure in its Plateau State chapter.
“We are giving you one week to end the harmonisation in Plateau and return to the status quo. If you cannot operate outside FIFA statute, you also lack the powers to set up the committee in Plateau,” he said, hitting the gavel violently.
Making a special appeal, federation’s president, Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, had pleaded with the committee for more time, protesting that the eggheads of the federation have international engagement.
However, speaking after a closed door executive session with the federation, the Sports Committee boss announced that after explaining to the committee about their situation, they have resolved to give them more time to organise themselves and appear before the committee at a larger stakeholders forum in a yet to be fixed date.
“We will give them more time because they have been able to explain to the committee about their international engagement. Whatever may be the situation, we will resolve the issues during the larger stakeholders meeting coming very soon,” he said to douse the tension.