Some soccer buff from Anambra have hailed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for setting up a Caretaker Committee at the expiration of the board led by Sen. Ifeanyi Uba.
The NFF said the Committee will run affairs of the FA pending the conduct of fresh elections.
The tenure of the Dr Ubah executive team expired on April 28 and later allowed a grace period of three months by the FA from April 28 to May 27 and subsequently to Aug. 3, because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Committee would be inaugurated in Awka, the Anambra State capital on Aug. 5 for a period of three months.
A football club owner, Mr Odi Ikpeazu of Anambra Redoubtable FC of Onitsha, said it was annoying a that a band of never-do-wells, who destroyed football in the state would once more gang up to hijack soccer in the state.
“It is exasperating that the band of will gang up to destroy football in the state.’’
He added, that he would never have dreamt in his worst nightmare that I would ever lose interest in the beautiful game.
“And I must offer dubious compliments to these men for making it possible
“This is most unfair. I never knew that some one will ever compel me to turn back against the sport, like Uba and his co-travelers have tried to do.
“Before his emergence, I know how much I along with Gabriel Chukwuma contributed to growth of soccer, only for ingrates to destroy our collective effort and stall the future of many youths in Anambra State.
“He is not the only fellow to have used soccer to climb. There are the likes of Silvio Berlusconi and even here at home, the likes of MKO Abiola, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Patrick Osakwe (Flash Flamingoes), Jim Nwobodo and Chuba Ikpeazu.
“For someone to contemplate destroying soccer in the state, such a fellow is a candidate for hell.’’
According to Ikpeazu, an Onitsha-based Attorney-at-Law, Chukwuma of the defunct Gabros FC of Nnewi, single handedly propped up soccer in Anambra for about 25 years before I contributed my modest efforts.
“It is such a pity that about two decades of toil and dedication will be demolished in a matter of months.’’
A well known soccer commentator, Emeka Odikpo, formerly of Radio Nigeria, condemned those claiming to have held a sham election into Anambra FA.
“This is criminal of monumental dimension. Why will they hold the state hostage for four years and hatch yet another such a heinous crime.
“I don’t know why there’s so much desperation for political office in Nigeria.
“Anambra State must move to the next level in football and all stakeholders must join hands to rid the state of these `power grabbers’.
“I am appalled to the level that they had plunged the state,’’ he said.
Article 85 of the NFF Statutes 2010, provides that ‘the Executive Committee shall have the final decision on any matter not provided for in the Statutes or in cases of force majeure.
Consequently, the Executive Committee of the NFF in its wisdom, and in order not to create a vacuum, had hereby constituted a Caretaker Committee for Anambra State Football Association as follows:
Mr Emmanuel Okeke – Chairman
Mr Victor Nwangwu – Vice Chairman
Mr Nonso Philip – Member
Mrs Charity Ebere Okonkwo – Member
Mrs Onyeabo Chimezie Success – Member
Mr Chijioke Onyedika – Secretary
The Caretaker Committee is to administer Anambra State FA and also conduct elections into the Board and the Anambra State Local Football Councils within three months, effective from Aug. 4 to Nov. 2.
Precisely, the tenure of the Caretaker Committee expires on Nov. 2
