The Supreme Court on Friday refused to make any pronouncement on the suit seeking the sacking of the Amaju Pinnick-led executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Rather, the apex court, in a judgment delivered on Friday, sent the case back to the Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, where it was commenced in September 2014, and ordered the said court to give it an accelerated hearing.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, unanimously set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Jos, which had held that the case could no longer be relisted before the Federal High Court having been earlier withdrawn by the appellants.
Although the Supreme Court upheld the appellants’ contention that they could have the case re-listed before the Federal High Court after their settlement talks broke down, it rejected the plea by the appellants to have the case heard and determined on its merit.
The apex court held that the conditions that could warrant hearing such case which ought to be heard by the Federal High Court had not been met.
The appellants, Yahaya Adama and Obinna Ogba, who had claimed that they and others were the authentic NFF executive committee members said to have been elected on August 26, 2014.
Meanwhile, the NFF, through its counsel, Festus Keyamo, via Twitter, confirmed that the apex court never sacked Pinnick and his group.
Nobody should cause unnecessary panic in Nigeria’s football. That’s my case. Supreme Court DID NOT NULLIFY AMAJU ‘s Election. The Supreme Court did NOT remove Amaju from office. 1/3- @fkeyamo Counsel to NFF.
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) April 27, 2018
The Supreme Court only referred the case back to the Federal High Court to be tried properly to know which of the elections held in 2014 was right. 2/3 –@fkeyamo Counsel to NFF.
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) April 27, 2018
Amaju was NOT a party to the case at the Supreme Court so the court could not have removed a party from office without joining the party and hearing from the party.- Barrister @fkeyamo, Counsel to NFF. 3/3
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) April 27, 2018
