The 2018 Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Electoral Committee on Wednesday said it had reached a decision to hand a ‘provisional clearance’ to Aminu Maigari ahead of the upcoming NFF’s elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the elections into the NFF’s Executive Committee 2018-2022 is expected to hold on Thursday in Katsina.
Maigari, the immediate past President of NFF is one of the four candidates contesting for the presidency.
Others include incumbent Amaju Pinnick, who is also the 1st Vice President of CAF, Taiwo Ogunjobi, former Nigeria international defender and Chinedu Okoye, proprietor of amateur league club, Bimo FC.
Maigari was for several years Chairman of the Bauchi State Football Association and also headed the Bauchi sub –seat for the FIFA U17 World Cup that Nigeria hosted nine years ago.
The NFF Electoral Committee put in place by the NFF Congress at the 2017 Annual General Assembly in Jos, Plateau State, which is headed by Barr. Muhammed Sani Katu, will conduct the polls.
The Committee, in a statement signed by Katu on Wednesday said it had resolved to substitute the earlier clearance given to Maigari to contest with a provisional clearance.
The statement said that the committee reached its decision based on two petitions written against Maigari by Chuma Onye and Ahmed Shuaibu dated Sept. 14 and Sept. 17, respectively.
It said that the petitions were written against Maigari for certificate forgery and submission same for the purpose of the screening conducted by the electoral committee.
“During the screening exercise, the electoral committee discovered the discrepancies in the certificate presented by Maigari who is vying for the post of president of the NFF.
“However, the committee couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on whether to disqualify him or not, hence the need to resort to voting.
“During the voting, three out of five members of the electoral committee voted in favour of him being cleared and allowed to participate in the election.
“This led to the inclusion of his name in the list of the cleared candidates,” it said.
It however noted that upon receipt of the petition, the committee met and resolved to forward a copy to Maigari for his response vide a letter dated Sept. 14.
The letter urged him to appear before the committee on or before Sept. 17 for the purpose of clarification.
“Maigari received the letter and informed the committee through a phone call to the chairman of his desire to appear before the committee on Sept. 15.
“He honoured the invitation on the said date and further undertook to produce the originals of the said documents for verification and clarification on or before Sept. 17.
“However, as at Sept. 18, Maigari failed to produce the said original document,” it said.
It said that it was therefore based on the above premise that the electoral committee made the following resolutions.
“That the documents submitted by Maigari .i.e. the two Grade three certificates which were attached to the petitions are indeed not the same both in substance and in content with each other, in fact they are contradictory.
“That the said certificates are submitted to the committee in contravention of Article 5 (1) (i) of the guideline for the NFF Executive Committee Election, 2018.
“That the clearance earlier given to Alhaji Aminu Maigari to contest for the office of the President of the NFF is hereby substituted with a provisional clearance,” it said. (NAN)
