Owumi’s sack is illegal, says Jalla
Harrison Jalla,
President of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF)
has described the annulment of Davidson Owumi’s election as Chairman of
the Nigeria Premier League as illegal. The Nigeria Football Federation
had annulled the election yesterday.
But according to Jalla, only the congress of the NPL that approved Owumi’s election could annul the election and not the NFF.
“The NFF never
elected Owumi nor were they part of the process that brought him in so
it is wrong for them to just come around and say that they are
annulling an election they were not a party to,” he said.
“It is a big joke;
a sad development and unacceptable. The NFF does not have the power to
do that; the NPL is an entity, it has its own congress and board and if
those organs feel dissatisfied with the election they can go ahead to
remove Owumi and not the NFF executive committee.”
Jalla had been locked in a battle with the current board of the NFF over their legality but later settled out of court.
He concluded that the players’ union will continue to recognise Owumi as league boss.
The annulment
The NFF had on
Wednesday asked Owumi to vacate his seat as the NPL boss and deputy,
Shehu Gusau to run the affairs of the league pending the 14 days in
which fresh polls would be conducted.
The NFF ruled that it would uphold the Ibidapo Obe committee report, which had faulted Owumi’s emergence as the NPL boss.
On his own part,
the major rival of Owumi, Rumson Baribote has stated that he would only
accept the result of the soon to be conducted polls only if “due
process” is followed.
According to the
former Chairman of Bayelsa United, the deposed chairman should not be
allowed to contest the election again because he was never eligible to
contest.
Owumi beat Baribote to the position in an election conducted on May
20 but the former boss of Bayelsa United challenged the results of the
polls, claiming that Owumi was ineligible to contest. The NPL election
Appeals Committee upheld the results of the polls, but Ayo Ibidapo-Ope,
an independent arbitrator appointed by the NFF ruled in favour of
annulling the elections.
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