On Friday the League Management Company (LMC) announced that Nigeria Premier Football League club, Giwa FC of Jos, have been expelled from the NPFL for multiple infractions of the ramework and rules of the League, for violation of B13.28 which prescribes expulsion from the league for any club that fails to honour three matches cumulatively within a season with no acceptable reason to the League Management Company (LMC).
The LMC in addition to ordering a forfeiture of all funds due Giwa FC from the LMC, it also invoked Rule B13.66 to make pronouncements protecting the players of the club by granting them waiver to terminate their contracts with the club for ‘just cause’ or ‘sporting just cause’ and releasing them for contracts with other clubs during the on-going season.
The LMC recalled that Giwa appealed the decision but failed to appear before the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Disciplinary Committee for hearing, following which the decisions of the LMC were upheld.
But in a swift reaction to the notice of expulsion from the league served Giwa FC by the LMC, the chairman of the club and the factional president of the NFF Ambassador Chris Giwa, has said it loud and clear that, nobody in Nigeria has the powers to expel his club from the country’s league.
“The truth of the matter is that nobody can ban Giwa FC from the Nigeria Premier League. After our match against Rangers in Jos Township Stadium, the LMC who have been saddled with responsibility to run the league transferred the matter to the Amaju-led NFF board which in all senses is illegal.
“Giwa FC did not obey the banishment placed on it by an illegal body to avoid being charged for contempt. It is not the first time that Giwa FC was banished, we have been banished twice in the past to Bauchi and Kaduna and we obeyed and played all our home games in the new home grounds and won all the games. We also decided to exploit the loophole in the LMC ruling which said that, if Giwa FC does not agree with it, we could appeal and ofcourse we capitalized on this and appealed. If the LMC has said that, the decision was final, we would not have had any option than to obey.
“I am just privileged to be a vessel in the hand of God at this time to lead a cause, we can’t keep doing the wrong things all the time.
“For instance if you have gonorrhea and you keep going to a woman with this disease, no matter the treatment you get, you will continue to have gonorrhea. We cannot pretend that everything is alright when it is not. I am not desperate of becoming the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, I love the game and I am contributing and I will continue to contribute immensely to the development of Nigerian football by the grace of God. But I am just opportuned by the grace of God to be where I am today.
“The LMC cannot ban Giwa FC, because there is a litigation and the NFF which is at the middle of the litigation was allowed to take a decision which affected Giwa FC. So, it is either the LMC waits for the end of the litigation before any concrete decision can be taken. Again I have written all the 20 clubs in the Premier League about the court judgment which favoured my board. LMC are the licensed body to run the league in Nigeria and there was no reason to transfer decisions to an illegal Amaju Pinnick-led board.
On the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan, his face off with the Pinnick-led board, Giwa said: “Yes, the decision to withdraw the case in the court was reached when President Jonathan sent for me, when I got to the president, he said I should allow him to intervene to reach some truce and agreements. At that point, I went back to the court in Jos and told them that the president has decided to intervene and if the intervention did not work we shall return. The records are there and we went back. When the case was withdrawn in accordance with the provision of FIFA, the provisional suspended ban on Nigeria was lifted. But where everything turned sour was on the side of President Goodluck Jonathan who promised after the first meeting that he would get back after the desired interventio. The president never called us again until after he left office, and so as we promised before the case was earlier withdrawn, we went back to court, the records are there in the court. So, my board is in order.”
He said he would prefer to surrender everything instead of anybody telling him to take the post of the LMC chairman “which makes me a vice president. I have a mandate that God has given to me, I think the person that came after me should be asked to step down. Amaju got his mandate on September 30, I got my own on August 26, so I came first. People should stop saying I am a troublesome person, those who know me well knows I am not troublesome, I don’t have any problem with Amaju, I am only protecting my mandate. The moment we don’t respect our Statutes, constitution and our courts there won’t be peace.
“Let us just deceiving ourselves, FIFA is an institution that respects people. FIFA cannot tell us what to do, we should tell them what we want as a people and they will oblige us as Nigerians. The moment you begin to disobey the law of your land it is dangerous.
“This struggle is not all about me, I have a board. It is not about somebody surrendering a mandate, it is about what the law says. I am sure FIFA will not say we should go and disobey the laws of our land, they will not say that. We must learn to do the right thing.
“This FIFA ban scare started since the era of Ibrahim Galadima, it continued to Sani Lulu, Aminu Maigari and now. If anything happens to Nigeria, we can sent a delegation to FIFA and they will listen to us. I put my money in the game and if there is anybody that should be protected it should be me.”
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