Ousted NFF boss Aminu Maigari arrested for treason as 23 FA chairmen reinstates Maigari

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Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari, yesterday was arrested by operatives of the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) at the Wuye area of Abuja, venue of the meeting he had called to pull the rug off the feet of the Executive Board which he presided until he was impeached by eight of the 13-man committee.

He was reportedly arrested around 10pm and was whisked away by men of the SSS in their vehicle.

An alternative source say he was arrested early this morning. www.gongnews.net had reported how Maigari sent out invitations to the members of the General Assembly including some core FA Chairmen who he took to the World Cup.

One of the chairmen, Seyi Akinwumi of Lagos spoke to sports Radio, Brila FM monitored from Abuja asserting that why was Maigari being feared by the Umeh-led NFF. He asserted that the General Assembly has nullified the impeachment of Maigari.

Interpreted, that will mean that there are three factions in the management of football in the country. Maigari’s divide of the NFF, the initial faction led by Mike Umeh and the faction led by Jarett Tenebe.

Meanwhile, according to eye witness accounts, “as soon as the security operatives stormed the venue of the meeting, a popular hotel where some national teams are usually camped, many of the persons took to their heels and never returned.”

As at this morning, the hotel has practically been sealed up. Incoming guests are not allowed to come in while in-house guests were not prevented from leaving.

According to some of the people who attended the rival General Assembly they had 30 members including 23 FA chairmen out of the 44 members of the Assembly.

The plot was to void the NFF board decision which impeached Maigari.

They were supposed to brief journalists this morning to announce the reversal of the impeachment and suspend three of the members of the NFF Executive Committee including the Acting President, Mike Umeh.

Since they could not hold the press conference a decision was taken for individual members to network their contacts with media houses and use their friends to sell the reports on the various social media platforms.

The meeting was delayed and expected to have started at about 10pm last night. Their members who attended the Executive Committee meeting presided by Umeh had reported back to Maigari showing details of how they cowed the rest members to tow their middle point in the doctoring of the electoral committee.

“Chief Emeka Inyama and Mr. Chris Green returned to the Maigari faction to brief them of the activities in the Executive Committee,” said our source. They brought the communiqué of the Executive committee meeting which was deliberated on. The Maigari meeting was to review the Umeh-NFF meeting and proceed to overturn the impeachment.

The Umeh-led Executive Committee was said to have postponed the Congress which was scheduled for the 31st of July in order to avoid any form of breakdown of peace given the fragile security issues in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

When the State Security Service operatives stopped them from their Wuye venue, the members moved to the office of the League Management Company (LMC) in Wuse II where they held their meeting and issued what is considered as a pre-general assembly resolution in a seven-page document made available to reporters that Maigari remains president of the NFF and he should immediately return to office.

“That the undersigned having constituted more than 50%+1 of the members of the general assembly (as required by the NFF statutes for taking valid decisions at the congress) and in view the mathematical impossibility of the remaining members to ratify the alleged dismissal pursuant to the NFF statutes, the President should immediately return to his desk and continue as President of the NFF until after the elective congress of Tuesday, 26th August, 2014,” read part of the resolutions.

The FA chiefs said Maigari’s purported dismissal did not follow laid down procedures.

They also declared that allegations of financial misappropriation, misapplication and maladministration against Maigari are unproven as the audited accounts of the NFF for the past three years were never queried in the last three annual General Assemblies.

However, it is believed by the pro-Maigari group that the extraordinary congress was put off because the Pro-Umeh group “did not have the numbers to match us” at the congress.

And as at press time, Maigari is reportedly still being held by the State Security Service.