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Osinbajo Didn’t Endorse Pinnick As NFF Boss – Dalung

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NFF leadership tussle: S/Court sends Giwa, Pinnick back to high court for retrial
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Osinabjo Not Supporting Any NFF Faction

Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, said Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has not endorsed the Amaju Pinnick-led faction of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Dalung made this known in a statement released by Nneka Ikem-Anibeze, his Special Assistant on Media, today in Abuja, while stating that media reports to that effect were not correct.

According to him, the false reports claimed that Osinbajo’s endorsement was in view of the threat by world football governing body FIFA to ban Nigeria indefinitely from its activities by Monday.

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Naija News had earlier reported that FIFA had threatened to suspend Nigeria if all signs of government interference in football activities were not corrected.

“The reports are hallucinatory and invented. Though I he met with the Acting President after the FEC meeting, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the NFF impasse or football matters at all.

“A purported ‘breaking news’ being circulated by one Daniel Ator, a `Government House correspondent’ is totally false and a figment of an imaginary Government House correspondent,’’ the minister said.

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First of all, there is no correspondent in the Government House Chapel called Daniel Ator. Which media organisation does he work for?

“At no time did Acting President Osinbajo affirm government’s position on the NFF, nor did President Muhammadu Buhari write any letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation directing otherwise.

“It is a planted story and a fake news. There was no directive from the Acting President countering the court order,’’ Dalung said.

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He explained that the issue is still under checks by the Committee of NFF Elders Stakeholders, while expressing hope that the parties in the crisis would be able to come to an amicable resolution of the issue. “Nevertheless, the status quo remains’’.

He insisted that the report represented the desperation of interests, reflected in trying to counter a Supreme Court Order, and was grossly misguided.

This is not about a faction of an NFF leadership. It is an issue of the decision of the Nigerian court against an International statute. The truth cannot be overturned,’’ Dalung added.