Dalung

The Minister of Youth and Sport, Solomon Dalung, said on Wednesday he was yet to receive any court order nullifying Amaju Pinnick’s Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) presidency.

Dalung said this at the NFF Extra-Ordinary General Assembly in Abuja that he has not been informed of any court decision.

“As a lawyer and a Minister of Sports, till today I have not received any court order. The court orders served on me were all dated 2014. I have never received any court order dated 2016.

“The court order that was served on me was dated 2014; there is not even 2015 court order; so I am even worried, this news of Jos High court. I have not seen any court order, but I am not saying there is none, if there is any court order, I am the minister,  bring the court order to me, I have not seen it.

“I want to appeal to all of you seated here, that you must be sincere to yourself. For me in the government, government deals with establishments.

“We came into office and we inherited a government in the Nigeria Football Federation. If the government is replaced, we will also be informed as to how it has been replaced and as a government we will change our position.

“The football family must go back and put itself in order.’’

A Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State, on 7 April nullified the election that brought NFF President, Amaju Pinnick and his board into office.

Dalung said he was not in a position to elect or impose a president on the federation, hence the need for the football house to find a way to resolve its issues.

He said that the Pinnick-led board had 30 days within which to appeal after which the court order would be enforced.

Dalung urged the NFF board to remain focus to the cause of football adding that the Chris Giwa led board should allow Pinnick to exercise his right.

He also urged the media not to destroy football in the country with stories that do not exist.

Earlier, Pinnick called on the minister to use his good office to bring on end to the battle in the glass house adding that it was not good for the development of football in the country.

Pinnick said that in the past two to three days the federation had lost sponsors for many games.

The Chris Giwa led board at a news conference on Tuesday said that the court order had been made available to the minister.