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The Nigeria
Football Federation is determined to hold its elections today, despite
orders from a High Court in Lagos that the polls be postponed.

The elections had
earlier been scheduled to take place last Saturday but it was
rescheduled for today by the congress of the NFF. Tuesday’s court
decision which arose from a complaint filed by a former footballer,
Harrison Jalla, on behalf of the National Association of Nigerian
Footballers (NANF), a body that was not accorded recognition by the NFF
which favoured the Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria
(APFON). The injunction was the latest twist in the ongoing confusion
in Nigerian football.

Tuesday also saw a
group of placard carrying former footballers led by former Nigeria
captain Segun Odegbami, who is aspiring to become the next president of
the NFF. the group stormed Abuja clamouring for the postponement of the
board elections.

But despite these
developments, as well as the court order calling for the postponement
of the polls, the NFF insists the elections will take place as
scheduled.

“I have read
somewhere in the papers about a court order but as far as I know there
has not been any change regarding the elections,” media officer of the
NFF, Robinson Okosun told NEXTSports before adding: “They will go on as
scheduled.”

Singing FIFA’s tune

The NFF’s decision
is in sync with that of football’s world governing body FIFA, and its
African affiliate CAF, which has all along insisted that elections must
go on as scheduled. But former Nigeria international Taju Disu, was
among a group of former internationals at a press conference in Abuja
who yesterday lent their voice to the clamour for fresh postponement of
the elections, saying the NFF was walking on dangerous grounds.

“It is obvious to
all of us that these elections should not take place if we want to get
things right in our football,” said Disu. “We have been getting it all
wrong for a long time and now is the time for us to do the right thing.

“What some
individuals are trying to perpetrate is a scheme that will usher in the
same set of individuals who have been ruining our football and they are
trying to use the threat of a FIFA ban to shut us all up.

“But we know the
entire process is flawed and if it goes on it will only result into
more confusion,” added Disu who then called for all the
ex-internationals vying for positions into the NFF board to pull out of
Thursday’s polls.

That call appears
to have been accepted by Odegbami who informed NEXTSports that he won’t
be contesting in the polls if it goes ahead as planned.

“I won’t contest if
it goes ahead,” he told NEXTSports on the line from Abuja. “The entire
process is flawed and I will not be a part of it if it goes ahead.”
Another former international, Mutiu Adepoju, who is also vying for a
position in the NFF board however declined to comment.