International Basketball’s governing body, FIBA, has ordered fresh elections into the board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).

The decision to conduct fresh elections was reached after the FIBA Executive Committee meeting held on Saturday, March 10 at the House of Basketball and was communicated to the two warring factions earlier today via a letter.

The FIBA Executive Committee had to wade into the dispute between the two NBBF factions by sending a 3-man factfinding delegation in January following the failure to reach an amicable solution

The NBBF crisis started after two separate elections led to the emergence of both the Musa Kida-led faction and the Tijani Umar-led faction.

According to FIBA, the two elections held in 2017 were not carried out entirely in accordance with the FIBA General Statutes.

FIBA revealed that the 12 June 2017 elections did not comply with Article 9.3 and the 13 June 2017 elections did not comply with Article 9.7.

Article 9.3 – The statutes and regulations of national member federations must comply fully with the General Statutes and Internal Regulations of FIBA. The General Statutes and Internal Regulations of FIBA shall form part of the national member federations` statutes and regulations. In the event of doubt or conflict, the Genera/ Statutes and Internal Regulations of FIBA shall prevail.

Article 9.7 – National member federations shall manage their affairs independently and with no influence from third parties. In particular they must ensure that their officials are either elected or appointed under a democratic process for a term of office of four (4) years. Their statutes must provide a transparent procedure that guarantees the complete independence of the election or appointment.

The new elections is expected to be supervised by FIBA partly or entirely, however, no date has been announced for it to take place.

Until then, FIBA will continue to communicate with the Musa Kida-led NBBF faction.