By Kwese League
The leadership of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has expressed optimism that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja will in the interest of basketball and domestic players grant its prayer and throw out the frivolous case stopping the federation from holding the Men’s Premier Basketball League.
The case which was brought against the federation by the splinter faction of the former board of the Federation under the name ‘Kwese Premier Basketball League Management Board’ in 2018 had since stopped the Ahmadu Musa Kida led NBBF board from organising the league to the chagrin of basketball aficionados in the domestic scene.
Following months of court proceedings and adjournments with the last hearing in November 2019, the presiding Judge has now fixed the final judgement for January 26th, 2021.
This is expected to hopefully put paid to the lingering impasse surrounding the Men’s Premier League in the country.
NBBF President, Kida said yesterday: “We are waiting until next week when we will see where it leads, but we are hoping that the court will dismiss it so that they will allow us to organise the league and our domestic players will be able to compete again.”
Speaking in Lagos earlier this week, Kida said the court case which was mischievously filed in bad faith was targeted at the federation and players to render them redundant.
“We are shackled in court by the Kwese League Management Board under the former administration that took us to court to stop us from holding the Nigerian Premier League.”
Kida wondered how people who profess to love the players and are interested in the growth of the game could conspire to stop the league for the past three years for political reasons without batting an eye.
“One would have thought that that was not well intentioned if you really have the interest of the local players at heart, if you have the interest of the clubs and the interest of the general basketball stakeholders in the country”, he said.
“We hope to hit the ground running after losing valuable time since 2018,” concludes Kida who is the immediate past deputy managing director of Total Nigeria.
