A magistrate court seating in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has issued the arrest warrant of five officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on charges of bordering “theft, criminal conspiracy and criminal misappropriation.”
The warrant which was issued on Thursday, January 3, was carried out on Friday, January 11. According to reports, police officers stormed the Glass House at about 11 am on Friday morning with the warrant to arrest NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi, Mallam Shehu Dikko, Dr Sanusi Muhammed and Alhaji Ahmed Yusuf.
The warrant of arrest comes after the NFF President denied any form of wrongdoing and prosecution against him and after the Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigatory Panel (SPIP) on the recovery of public property, Okoi Obono-Obla, confirmed that his panel has established a “prima facie case” against Pinnick.
Although none of the persons indicted were arrested during the raid by the police officers, due to their absence.
A top NFF official confirmed the warrant to busybuddiesng.com on the matter saying: “This is just dirty politics, we will be fine by his grace.”
“The panel is not empowered to do this we have pointed it out to them,” the official added.
Earlier in the month, there were reports of President Buhari ordering the immediate probe of the NFF officials which Pinnick denied and threatened to sue the media houses involved in peddling such news.
The NFF 2nd Vice-President, Shehu Dikko, has also come under recent scrutiny after documents of him having ties with a firm that services the NFF emerged.
What remains to be seen is for the indicted NFF officials to appear in court and either deny or accept the charges levelled against them.
