Mahmud Sanusi Muhammed To Represent Taraba At NFF Elective Congress, AS Court Declares Him Substantive Chair

Following the Federal High Court judgement on Tuesday in Taraba, Mahmud Sanusi Mohammed is the legally recognised Taraba FA Chairman and qualified to cast vote in the Nigeria Football Federation Elective Congress in Benin City, Edo State.

 

The Federal High Court in Taraba had ruled that Mahmud Sanusi Mohammed was the winner of the Chairmanship Election of the Taraba State Football Association held on the 12th day of June 2019 at Bali Local Government of Taraba State having scored the highest number of votes cast.

 

Declared he (Mohammed) winner having won the aforementioned election and faulted the Nigeria Football Federation for recognizing Heman Magaji as the winner of the Chairmanship position of the Taraba State Football Association's Executive Elections held on the 12th day of June, 2019 by its letter dated the 26th day of September 2019 as wrong, illegal and capable of causing a breach of peace amongst the people of Taraba State.

 

The court further declared that the occupation of the chairmanship seat by Magaji was illegal, wrong and contrary to the spirit of fair play and the principles of democracy.

 

 

Sanusi in an interview said "the matter has been in court since November, 2021 after we had two different factional elections. We have tried to see how we can come to term with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) because there was a report submitted that did not portray what actually happened in the elections. The person NFF sent to Taraba to monitor or supervise the elections came to Taraba with a purpose and agenda. We tried to see how we can settle this matter with the NFF but our efforts to do so led to no avail reason we used court as the last resort.

 

"We wrote several times to the NFF but nothing was done. So, it came to a point where we have no option than to approach court.

 

"So, yesterday (Tuesday) the court ruled in our favour and declared me as the substantive Taraba State FA Chairman. The court affirmed that the other election was held outside Taraba State which is totally wrong while we had ours in the state. That alone should be enough reason why the election the federation believed to be the genuine election can never stand because it was conducted out of Taraba State jurisdiction. You cannot represent Taraba when you held your election outside the state. It is not done anywhere.

 

"As a matter of fact, our lawyer has applied for the Certified True Copy of the judgement and we will mobilise the bailiff of the court to serve the parties the copies of the judgement. Though, NFF and Timothy lawyers were the present in court on Tuesday when the judge made the pronouncement. But nonethless we will make sure that they are duly served of the judgement and order contained in it. We believe that the NFF will look into what is contained in the judgement. And unless court says otherwise, right now, i am the Congress man to represent Taraba State at the NFF Elective Congress in Benin City Edo State."