Nigeria decides league boss fate on Wednesday

The dispute for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) could be decided once and for all on Wednesday when the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) meets at the Glass House in Abuja.

Former Bayelsa United chairman, Victor Baribote Rumson, has been locked in a battle with the NPL chairman, Davidson Owumi, after an arbitration panel chaired by Professor Oye Ibidapo Obe nullified the election of the current Premier League chief.

The meeting of the Nigerian FA, which had been initially billed to hold last week, will take place with its president, Aminu Maigari, chairing the occasion after returning to the country on Sunday in the wake of undergoing medical treatment in South Africa.

Acting Secretary-General of the football house, Musa Ahmadu, said the secretariat will forward every detail of the dispute over the NPL chairmanship to the NFF Executive Committee to deliberate upon.

“The secretariat will include in the agenda to be discussed by the Executive Committee the issue of the NPL chairmanship. The football federation is keen to see peace return to the league leadership and I believe that the matter will be ironed out and a decision taken by the Executive Committee on Wednesday.

“It must be remembered that in our attempt to broker peace among the parties – three of them to be precise – we invited them to a meeting, which ended in a lock. We invited Mr Davidson Owumi, Mr Baribote Rumson and also, Honourable Abdulazeez Mohammed over the matter and nothing came out of it. So, the matter will now be handled by the Executive Committee,” Ahmadu said.

The three men, it would be recalled, were invited to the NFF’s office in Abuja on November 3.

However, there have been reports that the country’s soccer governing body could call for fresh elections into the NPL.

In spite of speculations of a new election in the offing, former Bayelsa United chairman is demanding that Owumi does not take part in the re-election process claiming that he was ineligible to contest in the first place.