…As Pinnick fails to upturn Giwa’s victory

Amaju Pinnick-led Nigeria Football Federation yesterday failed to get a Federal High Court in Jos to set aside an interim order that installed Chris Giwa as the NFF president.

Supreme Court had ruled that the judgment of the High Court that Giwa be installed until the final determination of the case be maintained. The apex arbiter however referred both parties to the lower court for continuation of the case.

The High Court in Jos, on Wednesday, heard arguments from both parties on the submission challenging the exparte order and the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case abinitio and adjourned to Tuesday, July 10 for ruling.

A source in Pinnick’s camp told our correspondent that they were so sure of victory but got a little bit disappointed that the ruling on the case was adjourned.

Our correspondent confirmed that they had fixed an emergency congress for Sunday and the executive board would meet on Monday in Abuja but the delay in the delivery of judgement appreaed to have put paid to that plan.

Nevertheless, Giwa’s camp is upbeat that the Tuesday’s ruling would favour them despite clandestine moves by their opponents to subvert justice.

We learnt on Tuesday’s reported that Giwa’s group would hold an executive committee meeting at the NFF’s secretariat on Friday when key decisions would be announced and there are indications the exercise will still go ahead as planned.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that Pinnick’s days as the NFF boss are now over following reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had given approval to the order by the Supreme Court which now sees Giwa-led board running the nation’s footballing affairs administratively.

We gathered that President Buhari was briefed on the matter by Sports Minister Solomon Dalung in Wednesday Federal Executive Council’s meeting and the President gave a full blessing to the move.

Pinnick is currently on duty at the World Cup in Russia and he is banking on his close relationship with FIFA boss, Gianni Infantiino, to reclaim his position but as things stand, he has little or no chance to mount a comeback.

It was also scooped that the president is also aware of the consequence of the move which could see Nigeria placed under a worldwide ban by FIFA- football’s governing body.

“The minister ensured he got the approval of the President before he ordered the NFF to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

“The President approved for the minister to get the Pinnick-led by executive committee to step aside in accordance with the court order even when he was told that the consequence would be a FIFA ban,”a top official told SCORENigeria.

However, efforts by this group to meet with top government officials at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday were futile after a presidential spokesman simply ordered them to revert to sports minister Solomon Dalung, who they have widely knocked for the latest crisis.

Rumours that the Chris Giwa group will not be in office yesterday because of “orders from above” turned out to be the usual lies as the group went about their business unhindered.