PANEL SETS MARCH 27 DEADLINE FOR NEW ELECTIONS

By NBF News

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Electoral Appeal Committee has said that elections into the National League, Amateur and Woman League Board must be conducted on or before March 27 to fill the vacuum created by the annulment of the erroneously elections.

The chairman of the three-man committee, Barr John Ola Mafo, who dropped the hint while addressing sports writers on its resolutions in Abuja, said that though the aggrieved had the right to take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), they were free to participate in the fresh elections to be conducted within 30 days from the date of ruling.

Disclosing that though one member of the committee, Dr Emmanuel Adanu, was absent during its sitting, the committee annulled the election based on the violation of the Article 33(1) of NFF Statutes, 2010, stressing that it provides that each geo-political zone will produce at least two of the 15 members of the executive committee of the NFF board.

'The committee, after all considerations, ruled that the NFF League Boards Chairmanship elections conducted on the January 29, 2011 be nullified. New elections be conducted within 30 days and that the electoral committee, in conjunction with the football authorities, must zone one of the three League Board Chairmanship position exclusively to the North-east, while leaving the other two open to all the six geo-political zones.

'By virtue of Article 33(3) and (4), all candidates in the election must be nominated by their state FA of origin in addition to other requirements.