Crisis have erupted with barely a month to the conduct of fresh elections into the executive board of the Kogi State Football Association on February 26.
Since the announcement of dates for sales of nomination forms and elections last December by the outgoing executive board, the emergence of four contestants for the coveted seat of chairman have highlighted the political drama in football.
Among the high-profile contenders for the Chairmanship position is Honorable Hassan Yusuf, the immediate past chairman of Okehi Local Government council as well as Chief Peter Oguche who is the vice chairman of Kogi chapter of YSFON, board member of Nigeria Women League Board and chairman of Oguche Babes.
Third big-wig in the contest is the out-going vice chairman of Kogi FA Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim who also contested for the chairmanship spot before stepping down for out-going chairman Yahaya Adama to emerge in 2010. Fourthly, Alhaji Umar Isah who is the chairman of Lokoja Local government sponsored Lokoja FC as well as treasurer of the LGA council which could carpet his ambition.
Sources informed that various alignment and high-level politicking has overwhelm the process of the contest which had began to throw up many protest, controversies and counter-allegations from uncomfortable contestants.
Another aspirant widely rumoured to have entered the ring was the outgoing chairman Yahaya Adama whose ambition to seek a re-election could have been crashed after his decision to take the NFF to an ordinary court made him ineligible, sources claim.
However, crisis erupted when one of the aspirants for the chairmanship seat, Ibrahim raised alarm over the attempt by the electoral committee to disenfranchise him from participating at the polls with unlawful clauses in the guideline.
Sources in the camp of Comrade Ibrahim alleged that the guidelines drew up contravenes the laws for conduct of elections which were enshrined in the NFF 2010 and state football association statutes and had in quick search for rescue sought the intervention of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Meanwhile, a strong Intel close to the state football house reports that bids to correct the anomalies in the electoral guidelines, had seen the state FA secretariat entered into a cool war with the NFF.
Source claims interventions by the NFF to get the state electoral committee to work within the confines of its laws have met deaf ears as the state FA secretariat and electoral committee insists on its already formed guideline for the polls.
In a related development, source reports that NFF have ordered the state FA body to officially communicate via a correspondence to the nation’s football body through its lawyer over its insistence.
On the implications of the feud between Kogi FA and NFF, source informed that the NFF are considering not only to suspended the body, but the state from all football-related activities if it fails to comply with it laid down rules for elections.
Source further hinted that the worse damage from the suspension would deny all football clubs residing in the state from participating in NFF-organised league competitions.
It also reliably divulged that a caretaker committee will be set-up by the NFF to oversee the activities of football in the state until various parties agrees for a fresh elections.
