Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) electoral committee chairman, Sani Katu has denied reports that the body plans to disqualify current boss of the nation’s soccer governing body, Melvin Amaju Pinnick from contesting polls into the Executive Committee.
Katu allayed the fears that plans had been concluded to disqualify former NFF president Aminu Maigari and the embattled current supremo, Pinnick from this month’s election.
He allayed worries over a speculated plan to disqualify both contestants during the much expected screening exercise and leave only one candidate, Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi alone to contest for the NFF top job.
Though he admitted there might be need for a change of activities in the timetable, he added that such would be decided in the committee’s meeting scheduled for Monday.
The NFF electoral committee chairman also declared that he and his members are not perturbed or distracted by the current leadership crisis in the country’s football house.
The timetable for the NFF election showed that protests and appeals will be heard and treated between September 4 and 6, after same must have been submitted between August 31 and September 3.
Publication of final list of candidates will be released on September 7 and elections into the NFF Executive Committee for 2018 to 2022 will hold on September 20.
The initial report also suggested additional five days to pave way for chairman of League Management Company (LMC), Shehu Dikko to enter the race, but Katu stressed that the committee will not disqualify anyone that meets requirement in the electoral guideline.
Katu added: “There is no plan to disqualify anybody that is qualified. We have election guideline that guides us.
“We are already screening candidates and we will be holding our meeting to know the next step.
“We asked contestants that want to occupy positions to come and obtain a form and fill it according to the guidelines of the election.
“Once we are satisfied with the requirements, I don’t see any reason one should be disqualified.
“We intend to screen and find out whether the contestants are qualified, and once they are qualified, they are qualified.
“There is no way we can disqualify somebody that is qualified. We are an independent body and we are not going to do anything that is contrary to the guidelines; it’s very clear.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of change of date based on election phenomena; we published a timeline but anything can happen at any time but for now, we are working with our schedule.”
