Unending Squabble in Taraba Football Association

There seems to be no end to the lingering crisis rocking the Taraba State Football Association, as two factions are operating from different locations with different staff working in the name of Taraba FA.

The crisis, which began after the last elections into the board of the state FA, recently forced the NFF to threaten to ban the state from all football activities.

The Taraba State Local Football Chairmen and the State sports council has unanimously agreed and suspends indefinitely former State Football Association Chairman Timothy Heman from all sports activities in the state, for fractionizing the group after losing his bid to return as FA Chairman.

Chairman Takum local football council Mr Victor Ando Andrew made this known in a communiqué was issued after an emergency general assembly held at the Secretariat of the football Association at Jolly Nyame stadium in Jalingo.

He said Timothy Heman was suspended for opening a fractional office and not complying with regulations of the state FA.
Accusing  the former FA Chair Timothy Heman of bringing ‘some miscreants’ to intimidate the football family in the State because his bid to retain his position failed, Ando Andrew said they can't be intimidated by miscreants, stressing that the FA will go ahead with its grassroots football competition tags Governor Cup 2019.
He noted that Sanusi Mahmud Mohammed remains the recognized FA Chairman of Taraba football association.

Sanusi Mahmud who has since resume at the official secretariat of the Football Association  accused two top members of the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau and Babangida Kali of deliberately creating problem in the state football activities.

 Mahmud noted that both men should be held responsible for the ongoing crisis rocking the state football association, stating that their action from the very beginning was what created the hullabaloo.

Narrating how the crisis began, the factional FA Chairman maintained that both men from the Nigeria Football Federation set out from the very beginning to impose Timothy Herman on the FA chairman, stressing that knowing fully well that it will be absolutely difficult to achieve that through a free and fair election, connived with Timothy to return him through the backdoor.

Mahmud Sanusi revealed further that on the day of the election, Babangida Kali who was to be the NFF supervisor switched off his Phone immediately on arrival in Taraba, thereby making himself unreachable by any other person except Timothy who had an pre-arranged way of reaching him.

The factional FA chairman questioned why a man who was sent to supervise an election would team up with one of the contestant to move election to a different venue and even agreed to conduct election with only seven members while the majority of the other members were gathered at the original venue scheduled for the election.

He argued that it was against this backdrop that they decided to go ahead with theirs since they had the majority of the members and with the majority of the electoral personal apart from the Chairman on ground also on ground.

Mallam Sanusi Mahmud noted with seriously that while the whereabouts of the NFF supervisor was unknown to them they were in communication with the NFF headquarter in Abuja, revealing also that they also had difficulties reaching him too.

He then expressed disgust with the resolution of NFF through Ibrahim Gusau who came to Jalingo to inform them that Timothy has been duly recognized, and threatened to ban Taraba state from every National football activities if he was not allowed to carry out his duty.

“It is a slap on the face of the people of Taraba and it is a slap on the government of Taraba state, and we have resolved not to succumbed to their wish. Taraba state government will not recognise Timothy, the football family in Taraba will also not recognize him,

“Our election met all the requirement except for the fact that the NFF supervisor refused to turn up which is not our making. Apart from the fact that all the football stake holders were present at our election, the government of the state was duly represented by the Director of sports. So, the question is, what is the interest of Ibrahim Gusau and Babangida Kali in Taraba football?” he asked.

Meanwhile, football stakeholders in Tarba staged a peaceful protest in Jalingo protesting NFF imposition of candidate on them. They called on the NFF president, Amaju Melvin Pinnick to call both men to order.

The Taraba state ministry of Youth and Sports Development also wrote to the Nigeria Football Federation to authenticate the election that brought in Sanusi Mahmud as the duly elected FA chairman.

The very young and energetic football administrator argued that he is not afraid to go into another election, maintaining that he is also ready to relinquish the office if Timothy wins in fresh election, he hovever stressed that they would resist every attempt for people in Abuja to impose a chairman on them.

Dismissing Mahmud’s claim to the FA chairmanship, Timothy H. Magaji, claimed  that he was the duly elected leader of the Taraba FA, said the FA elections ‘in this state was very free and fair.’