Court Declares NFF Corruption Case ‘Political,’ Adjourned Till Nov. 5

The corruption charge brought against the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) by the disbanded Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) witnessed a twist at the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu declared that the case was political and she was not interested in politics.

The judge adjourned the matter to November 5, 2019, with all the signals pointing to the fact that the case may be dismissed on that day.

Although Justice Ojukwu was not happy with the absence of the five NFF executives in court, after being briefed by counsel to the NFF, Barrister Sani Katu, she declared that she saw nothing in the case and that the defendants should have shown up in court.

Barrister Katu informed the judge also that the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has dissolved the SPIP that brought the case before the court and in the absence of the prosecutor, the case file is now with the Attorney-General of the Federation with other files are also in transition.

Justice Ojukwu stated that if the defendants had appeared in court, and in the absence of the scrapped SPIP, she would have released the defendants and dismiss the case.

Speaking after the adjournment, Senior State Counsel in the Ministry of Justice, Barrister Abubakar Musa, said that with the pronouncement that SPIP is no longer functional and disbanded by President Buhari, every case brought by the SPIP is now under the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

“According to the instructions of the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, the AGF is taking over the matter and all the files are supposed to be in transition,” Barrister Musa noted.

“The court cannot be blamed. The Attorney General of the Federation is the chief law officer of the state and he is bound to be sure that the Federal Republic of Nigeria obey the court order, but he is not aware of the order and if he is not aware of it, you cannot say he is bound to bring the defendants,” concludes the state counsel.