CAS WILL VINDICATE ME – LULU
Former Nigeria Football Federation President, Sani Lulu Abdullahi has revealed he is confident he will be vindicated by the highest sports court in the world, the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) once it sits in Switzerland to decide on the case brought before it by him and three former other principal officers of his impeached board.
Lulu, former first vice president, Amanze Uchegbulam and technical committee chairman, Taiwo Ogunjobi on Monday collectively took their case to the court in Switzerland in a search for justice.
'I thank God and Nigerians for the opportunity given to me to serve the country for four years. I believe I did my best within the short time using the statutes endorsed by the government and supported by the entire stakeholders. But the procedure of impeachment is very clear in the statutes, so also the procedure for seeking redress. We all know what happened.
'We just came back from the World Cup and surprisingly to me and my colleagues we were impeached without any reason. It happened three days after we had our executive committee meeting.
'When the impeachment came, it was a shocker to us. But we said we will not fight anybody because we are in a civilized dispensation and should look at what the statutes say on issues like this. The statute is very clear. The easiest way to seek redress in our case is to go to our football court which is CAS.
'We followed all the processes to arrive at that. We quietly did that in spite of heavy intimidations and difficulties encountered with the unjustified allegations of corruptions still ongoing. We believe we have taken the best option in a democratized environment having gone through the normal procedures to arrive at the ultimate point,' he said.
Lulu, who opened up yesterday in Abuja, said the decision was taken because they were aggrieved and disturbed.
'We felt something had not been done correctly in our statutes – hence the need to seek redress. The case is now before CAS and those who know CAS know that they are very clear on issues like this. They asked questions before accepting the case and I believe they will do what is absolutely right to all parties. We are confident about that because our impeachment was not due process compliant.
'We are sure that at the end the judgment will be in our favour,' he added.
He said they are not after opening a 'can of worms' but contesting the manner they were pushed out without re-course to their services to the nation.