6th December, 2015
Chris Giwa, the proprietor of Giwa FC of Jos, has threatened to drag the NFF to CAF over the decision of its Appeals Committee in the match involving his club and Nasarawa United FC.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Giwa had approached the NFF Appeals Committee for justice after the NFF Organising and Disciplinary Committee ordered that the encounter (Week 38) should continue from where it stopped.
Giwa is seeking for the result of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) match to be awarded to his team after Nasarawa United allegedly abandoned the encounter which was played in Lafia.
But contrary to his (Giwa) expectation, the committee upheld the initial decision of the League Management Company (LMC) which awarded the maximum three points to Nasarawa FC, contrary to the Organising and Disciplinary Committee’s decision.
Giwa, however, told newsmen on Sunday that he would challenge the decision of the Appeals Committee at CAF as it violated the NFF statutes to arrive at its decision.
He rejected the outcome of the appeal, explaining that his objection against a member of the committee from Benue should be addressed.
“As I speak to you, I am not aware of the resolutions of the NFF Appeal Committee because I appeared before the committee on Thursday last week to represent my club.
“When the secretary of the committee asked if we were comfortable with the composition of the committee, I told them that I won’t want the man from Benue State in the committee.
“This is because the Match Commissioner of the said match is also from the same state.
“I told them that allowing the committee member from Benue to sit in judgment against his statesman is like a brother sitting in judgment on a matter that involves his brother.
“So, I pleaded that he steps aside because I didn’t believe I can get justice from him,’’ he said.
Giwa lamented the abuse of the NFF statutes, noting that football would not develop in the country when the laws guiding it were flagrantly abused.
“I reminded the Chairman, Eddy Mark, that by the virtue of the NFF statutes, the chairman is empowered to sit alone; according to the statutes, two of them cannot even sit on a case.
“The statutes book says it is either three members sit or the chairman sits alone since the secretary of the panel is not a committee member.
“They strongly erred by allowing the same man I raised objection to his presence in the committee to take decision against me.
“In the real sense, he was supposed to step out for the chairman to give his ruling himself; let me tell you that this issue can stop Nigeria from participating in continental tournament next year.
“So, for Appeals Committee to violate the NFF statute, it means the decision cannot stand and taking decision outside the statute means that the committee is telling us to get justice outside the rule,’’ he added.
The proprietor of the club said that accepting the committee’s decision would not augur well for the club and its fans, as it would deny the state of watching its team during continental championship.
Giwa urged the leadership of the NFF to immediately reverse the decision of its appeals committee for football to move forward.
He said that he paid N500,000 appeal fees to get justice.