In a widely circulating leaked letter from the office of the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, Propel Sports Africa, sponsors of one of the marketing rights of the Nigerian league, has finally replied to a warning letter from the Legal firm of the “acclaimed” NFLL Broadcast Rights owner, TotalPromotions Limited, approximately 10 months after.
Propel Sports Africa announced a live streaming of NPFL matches deal, with pomp, in September last year. But the deal is yet to see the light of the day as Africa’s largest telecommunications outfit, MTN backed out of the partnership with Propel Sports Africa after a similar warning letter from TotalPromotions insisting that Propel Sports Africa was ignorantly swimming in murky waters of litigations, stressing that the Broadcast Rights of the Nigerian League still resides with TotalPromotions Limited..
A copy of the strangely undated letter from Propel Sports Africa signed by the chairman of the company, Basil Kabanni, was scooped by our reporter at the Abuja Football circle of the NPFL.
In the said reply, the company asserted that it has done its due diligence with the NPFL and revealed that the football body denied having a running league broadcast rights deal with TotalPromotions.
The leaked Propel letter partly read: “Dear Sirs, We refer to your letter dated the 25th September. We have immediately forwarded the same to the Chairman and the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Professional Football League and to their commercial partners GTI, and ask them to respond to you directly.
Propel Sports further stated that the company is “advised by ALL the relevant parties that your claims and assertions are entirely without merit.”
In further reaction to our demand for comments to the Propel Sports’ undated letter, TotalPromotions wondered why one will waste his time attending to baseless, undated, factually laden with unhearsed words, contained in the Propel Sports letter from legally myopic egg-heads, says the Managing Director of the company, laughing hysterically.
We further requested for the legal implication of the Propel Sports letter from Barrister Uche Onochie, a renowned football lawyer who has been in the business for decades and he simply echoes the words of the Managing Director, saying the undated letter from Propel Sports is a mere piece of paper and ‘therefore of no legal weight’
“You can also see their statement of deceit at the top of the letter where they insert: WITHOUT PREJUDICE, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. That means nobody can tender the letter in court. And it speaks volumes about the corporate integrity of Propel Sports Africa and the deceit the NPFL has been coping with.”
Onochie said: “Don’t also forget that Elegbeleye’s NPFL has no legal root or legal foundation upon which its creation was based. It is an illegal body according to the popular Justice Donatus Okorowo judgment who ruled that NFLL is alive. This was affirmed by the Supreme Court which in another judgment declared that the League Management Company, LMC, is a “fraudulent company”
“Justice Okorowo’s judgment also placed a “Perpetual Injunction on the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and the NPFL, barring both from running football Administration in Nigeria in whatever guise. Yet it was the NFF under Ibrahim Gusau, himself a product of illegality from the September 30, 2022 Elective Congress in Benin City , Edo State, that inaugurated Elegbeleye and his board. That Board was illegally still born.
Speaking further in his analysis, the legal luminary added: “Don’t forget that the Benin election was supervised by Amaju Pinnick who former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onoghen, leading a Supreme Court judgment, said he (Amaju) was not the authentic president of the NFF but Chris Giwa who won the Abuja Congress election in 2013.
“Amaju and Gusau were never in office in the eye of the Nigerian law, yet these are the people that birthed Elegbeleye and his NPFL Board.
“TotalPromotions, in my opinion, needn’t banter words with either Propel Sports or Elegbeleye and his directors. We all believe in the laws of the land and all parties shall have their day in court. The NPFL, Elegbeleye and those who birthed them will soon realize that by law, Aminu Maigari, Amaju and Gusua were never in office. All the years they spent at the Glass House amount to nullity.
“Even, the recent appointment of George Finidi by the Gusau-led NFF, as Super Eagles Coach is yet another exercise in futility. How can an illegally unrecognized body like the NFF appoint a national football coach if not that such acts amount to abuse by the rascals who run our football.
“The law of the land recognizes the NFA ACT and not NFF. Even if they revert to the NFA Act tomorrow, they must pay for the illegal disregard of the law over the years.
“And these illegalities over the years give credence to allegations of financial underplay in the management of football at every stratum. And I think it is time we got right in the management of football in the country.”