By Chimaobi Uchendu
Several months after Nigeria’s apex court, the Supreme Court declared the League Management Company, LMC, illegal, the Federal Government on Friday finally sacked the Shehu Dikko-led Nigeria Professional League body through a terse memo to the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.
The illegal LMC concocted in 2012 after the Runsom Baribode-led NPFL was sacked by the Congress of the body has been administering the country’s football for almost a decade.
This sack memo was contained in a press statement issued by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Ismaila Abubakar.
The ministry said the drastic action became necessary, especially after a competent court of jurisdiction has since declared the League Management Company (LMC) an aberration and unknown to Nigeria’s laws.
The Supreme Court ruled that the NFF fraudulently floated the LMC to avoid and evade pre-existing debts and other obligations owed by the organisation it succeeded; the Nigeria Premier League Limited, which is originally mandated by law to run a professional football league in Nigeria.
Thus the federal government advised the NFF to promptly withdraw the dubious licence given to the LMC to run the league for a century andimmediately set up an Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by the CEO, Davidson Owumi and COO Salihu Abubakar, leaving the current chairman, Shehu Dikko out of the new arrangement.
Read the full statement here…
In view of the several unpleasant incidents regarding the management of the Football League, specifically, the declaration of the National Football League (NFL) as an illegal body by the Court; the status of the League Management Company, LMC, the NFL’s successor-in-title being outside the purview of the Statutes of the NFF; the Federal Government is constrained to withdraw its recognition of the LMC as the operator of the Nigeria Professional Football League, with immediate effect.
This decision has become necessary because of the obvious aberration (which is at variance with our football statutes or the laws of the land) whereby a private company is gifted the mandate to manage or run the league indefinitely, without the full involvement of and leadership by the clubs, and devoid of any process to monitor the progress and development of the game.
Sequel to the above, and in order to rescue our domestic football from total collapse, the BOARD OF THE LMC AND THE LMC AS A BODY WOULD NO LONGER BE RECOGNISED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS OPERATOR OF THE NIGERIAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.
To avert further chaos in our domestic football, the NFF is advised to immediately withdraw the Licence given to the LMC and, in the meantime, set up an Interim Management Committee (IMC), to include the current Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the LMC to oversee the affairs of the League until a proper Professional League Board is constituted in accordance with the Statutes of the NFF.
