The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board on Thursday in Abuja passed a vote of no confidence on its Chairman, Aminu Maigari, and approved his immediate dismissal from the board.
Aminu Maigari
The board, which said the action was on grounds of financial misappropriation, misapplication and maladministration, mandated its First Vice-Chairman, Mike Umeh, to act as Chairman pending new elections.
It had taken the decision at a meeting at the NFA Glass House secretariat to review the situation, after last week’s vacation of an injunction by the Jos High Court.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the injunction had asked the board to step aside, leading to Sports Minister Tammy Danagogo sacking the NFA management team.
The injunction and Minister’s action had irked FIFA, which subsequently suspended Nigeria, before lifting it after the court order was vacated.
Ademola Olajire, NFA’s Head of Communications, said in a statement on Thursday in Abuja that the board took the decision after “thorough and exhaustive deliberations on the uncalled-for secrecy surrounding all financial dealings of the association’’.
The statement also quoted the meeting’s communiqué, signed by Muazu Suleyman, Chairman of its Drafting Committee, as citing as another reason the “failure to call a board meeting for the past eight months’’.
“During this period, so many weighty decisions on Nigerian football had been taken by a small cabal within the board,’’ the communiqué said.
It said further that Umeh, as Acting Chairman, is to preside over the board’s affairs pending the composition of the new NFA board after the elections of Tuesday, Aug. 26.
The meeting was attended by Maigari and Umeh, as well as other board members such as Emeka Inyama, Dilichukwu Onyedinma, Ahmad Muazu Kawu, Effiong Johnson, Chris Green andShehu Adamu.
Other board members in attendance at the meeting are Suleyman, Ayodeji Tinubu, Yusuf Ahmed, Felix Anyansi-Agwu and Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, as well as Musa Amadu, the NFA Secretary-General.(NAN)
