Godfrey Gaiya: Meeting with Giwa-led faction will determine NFA elections

Abuja - The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Sports, Godfrey Gaiya, has said that the meeting with Chris Giwa-led Nigeria Football Association will determine if it will hold another election.

Gaiya said this after the committee’s closed door meeting with the Minister of Sports, Tammy Danagogo, on the crisis in Nigeria’s football house in Abuja on Tuesday.

The two factions of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) are now in existence and contending for recognition.

The Aminu Maigari-led faction, on the other hand, had on Aug. 26 fixed Sept. 4 for its board election and the electoral committee had since swung into action.One faction, the Giwa-led faction, alleged that it won the board election on Aug. 26.

In view of this, the house committee on Aug. 30 summoned all parties involved in the NFA crisis, including the minister with a view to resolving the crisis.

The Aminu Maigari-led faction had appeared before the committee.

“As most of you are aware, we were here on Friday and we spoke to the Maigari faction and we promised that the minister will also appear before the committee.

“He has appeared today and we had a very fruitful discussion w

ith him. We will still continue tomorrow as we will be expecting the Giwa-led faction.

“By the time we are done with all the contending factions, the committee should be able to come out with a directive.

“We are still consulting and we will need to talk with all stakeholders, then we will give you a statement concerning the election,’’ Gaiya said.

He, however, noted that the committee would not pre-empt the resolutions it would make as it wanted to listen to all factions before drawing conclusions.

“You have to be patient concerning our resolutions because we have to listen to the Giwa-led faction before we come out with our position.

“You know that the committee has never shied away from what is right; so, after meeting with all parties we will make our position known publicly.

“We don’t want to pre-empt anything,’’ Gaiya said further.