Court may stop NFF elective Congress in September 2026

Court may stop NFF elective Congress in September 2026

By Mike Ndidi

The possibility of the elective Congress and the Extraordinary Congress of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) which was initially planned to hold in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State on February 14, but later moved to March 25, looks unlikely, reports www.sportsunlimited.ng.

The plan might have ran into brickwall due to the vehement declaration by a pressure group advocating for reform in the Nigerian football concept to block it from holding.

The proposed Extraordinary Congress was to draw a roadmap on the absolute 2010 statues of the NFF and set up modality for the upcoming election for a new board which is expected to hold in September, 2026.

A Federal High Court  in Abuja, recently ordered as follows: that the NFF should show congent reasons why it should proceed with it's planned Extraordinary Congress in Bayelsa State. 

The Presiding Judge, Justice G.M. Umar, after hearing the submission of Chief Victor Rumson Baribote, counsel to the plaintiff, ordered substituted service of all processes in court proceedings as prayed.

The case was subsequently adjourned to February 17, 2026. According to Harrison Jalla, "No Congress can take place in whatever guise, whether it is Elective or Extraordinary. 

"This matter concerning the electoral process of the NFF is subjudice, so no electoral process in whatever guise can take place and if members proceed to do that, they are only talking a risk and they will learn in a very hard way. It has happened before in 2010, those who don't know should go back to history. So no process concerning 2026 election can take place, the Congress currently as it is, is illegal. The Congress is not democratic, it's a one member Congress of the FA chairmen in Nigeria Football Federation and it's constituted with five federating unit and blocks. So, one out of the five cannot be in control, that's our contention in court. They have no locus standing whatsoever to progress with any election," Harrison said.

Meanwhile, Jalla and his group are not alone in this fight. A former captain of the Green Eagles of Nigeria, Chief Segun Odegbami (MON) also spoke about the abnormally which he said is unhealthy for the Nations Football.

According to Odegbami, "The 37 state football associations are organs of the Federation not members. The clubs are the members, the Football Academy are members, the referees are members, the states are not members they are organs but at a time in our history, for political expediency and political reasons, somebody manipulated the system and made the states' Board Association independent members to exploit their numbers for whatever reason.

"Thirty seven will always decide or determine who becomes President of the Federation and that's the only problem we have. Just to achieve a certain political agenda they created a group that has become a monster," Chief Odegbami bemoaned.

Odegbami, until the last 12 years has been one of the few former Nigeria Internationals that were brave enough to contest for the NFF Presidency but on each occasion he felt short.

In a statement, Harrison Jalla and his group reminded football stakeholders in the country, that despite the pendency of suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1376/2021 and the Court of Appeal Judgment setting aside it's September, 30, 2022 elections, the Ibrahim Musa Gusau - led board has brazenly remained in office.

www.Sportsunlimited.ng gathered that all processes have been served on the NFF as ordered by the court. 

Our correspondent tried tried to get the NFF reactions but the General Secretary, Dr. Sanusi Mohammed was not picking up our calls and neither did he return the calls.