Festus Keyamo, Counsel to NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, has replied the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, who claimed Friday that the NFF refused to act on an order served them until it was too late to remedy.
Keyamo, in a swift reaction to what he classified as a false claim by the Honourable Minister, said “neither he nor his clients received any order,” a situation the minister and his cohorts capitalised on to go ahead to obtain an exparte motion.
“How could we challenge it when we never had a knowledge of it.
“The man is a pathological liar.”
The Motion challenging jurisdiction based on FIFA Statutes that recognizes only CAS has been pending since 2014, but they have only been interested in getting exparte orders since then.
“So, why did he not send a lawyer to court last Wednesday? And when he was served the Order early, why did he not draw the attention of Pinnick’s Board to it until implementation stage”? Keyamo queried.
He added: “They moved exparte on the 5th. We did not know. We were in court on the 6th. The court never mentioned it.
They kept everything clandestine because they didn’t want any challenge to it until implementation stage.
“In order words, Solomon Dalung was working hand-in-gloves with Chris Giwa all along because they’re both from Plateau State,” Keyamo said.
The Chris Giwa group took over the secretariat of the NFF allegedly based on an advice from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to the Minister of Sports ostensibly following an exparte order secured by the Giwa group at a Federal High Court on June 5.
The media and other pressure groups are monitoring the situation and see what the outcome would be before the september election in Katsina State.
