Minister of sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has thrown more light on factors that led to his directive ordering Amaju Pinnick and members of his executive committee to step at Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was due to a contempt of court order that he was served with for delaying implementation of the Supreme Court ruling.
While admitting that implementing the court ruling could bring dire consequences on the country, Dalung pointed out that it is Nigerian football stakeholders themselves who give room for world soccer governing body, FIFA to hit the nation for taking internal decisions.
Dalung, however, stated further during a television interview on Monday afternoon that the nation’s football stakeholders should also be held responsible for the chain of events affecting the NFF, as he insists both sides of the saga took the recourse to legal actions.
He went on to reveal that he took it upon himself to intervene in the matter, even to the extent of personally informing Pinnick and his group about the attorney-general’s advice on implementing the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He stated in part: “Before going to the World Cup, I took it upon myself to inform the NFF about the advice I had from the attorney-general of the federation about the need for us to follow what the Supreme Court ruled on this matter.
“Being a lawyer myself, I am aware of the implications of disobeying court orders, and I had also been told that I was subject to contempt of court over this matter. We have to obey the laws of the land; we are all bound firstly by what our on courts say.
“I any case, with both sides of the matter going to different courts at various points along the line, they have made themselves subject to the law of the land, regardless of what the regulations of FIFA say.
“FIFA will surely have something to say on this matter, but we need to also consider our own internal legal system on this issue. In any case, it is we here in the country ourselves that keep raising the issue of FIFA ban. We escalate the matter even before FIFA speaks.”
