NPFL: Impunity continues as Enyimba and others join Elkanemi in ignoring NFF order on new signings

It was another reign of impunity as the remainder of the opening round of the Nigerian Premier League football got underway this week.

We have reliably checked the facts and gathered that the NPFL is fast becoming a league where unprofessionalism and “I don’t know how” are the order of the day.

Barely a week after it emerged how Elkanemi Warriors colluded with officials from the NFF and NPFL Club Licensing Department to transfer old players and field new players against Enugu Rangers FC in their opening match of the season in defiance of the transfer ban and order to field new players against the club by the NFF Player Status and Arbitration Committee.

The following weekend where the rest of the first round matches were played, more clubs bravely followed the bad precedent overseen by the NFF and NPFL in the case of Elkanemi Warriors as Enyimba FC, Akwa United, Lobi Stars, Kwara United, Katsina United, Plateau United, Abia Warriors and Heartland FC joined Elkanemi Warriors and succeeded in rendering the all-important committee and its decision useless in settling the contractual dispute between players, coaches and contracting clubs by introducing new players against an existing order which has not been set aside by the Court of Arbitration, nor any waiver or addendum or any agreement.

What is more worrying is the deafening silence from the Nigeria Football Federation as it has been established that the Club Licensing Department of the NFF and the NPFL are compromised and unwilling to comply with the decision of the committee to the detriment of the indebted players and the overall image and outlook of the league.

The moral burden is on the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF to disavow that this is not a great plan to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, if the players who are supposed to be the biggest shareholders of the NPFL are being owned while the indebted clubs disregard contractual agreements.

This silence from the NFF board led by Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau is no longer golden, otherwise it would mean consent to the illegalities perpetrated by the concerned clubs and their collaborators.

This lapse or negligence by the NFF will surely bring anarchy at the end of the day as these players who were illegally possessed and expelled from their job can seek justice elsewhere or through any means available to them if the legal channel constituted proves to be unworthy and futile in obtaining justice.

As a matter of emergency, there is an urgent need to nip this unsavoury development in the bud as the small benefit of establishing the Players Status and Refereeing Committee has been squandered on official mischief by clubs and NPFL officials.

The NFF must know that it is not enough to create a dispute resolution and arbitration committee and that its ruling will not be implemented, it is an aberration of the highest order.

This trend of unjustified contract terminations and indebtedness to players, coaches and other clubs is sure to continue in the current season, as there was no punishment for those who did so before.

Gusau must not allow this murder of justice and the rights of players, coaches and clubs to continue for another day because decisive and immediate action is needed as this high-level official illegality has no place in the development and growth of football.

A look at the debt owed by the clubs to their various former employees who obtained a judgement in their favour for the illegal termination of contracts by the NFF Players’ Status and Arbitration Committee, as the clubs are required to comply with the judgements before the start of the 2024/2025 NPFL, but all failed to comply with the judgement without remorse.

•Abia Warriors will be required to pay Ikedinachi Nwakanma and Julius Obinna N4 million and N3 million respectively for unfairly terminating their contracts.

•Imoh Azubuike is entitled to receive overdue payments amounting to N3.15 million from Abia Warriors.

•Abia Warriors will be required to pay Victor Alegbe N5 million for unfairly terminating his contract and overdue payments.

•Enyimba FC will be required to pay Stephen Chukwude N5 million for unfairly terminating his contract.

• Jonah James, Jonas Emmanuel, H. Shamsudeen, Kanti and Abiodun Adebayo are eligible to receive overdue payments from Katsina Utd. Payments will be made in instalments between June and September 2024.

•Katsina United will have to pay coach Usman Shariff Abd’Allah N7.7 million for overdue bills.

•Katsina United will have to pay coach Nasir Salisu N1.25 million for overdue bills.

•Katsina United will have to pay coach Tony Bolus N8 million for overdue bills.

•Enyimba must pay Chijioke Akuneto N1.2 million for overdue accounts.

•Lobi Stars will be required to pay Christian Nwokedi N1.5 million over overdue bills.

•El-Kanemi Warriors will be required to pay Bala Yusuf, Emmanuel Adoyi and Suleiman Sodiq N750,000, N1.65 million and N1 million respectively for overdue accounts.

•Kwara United to pay John Obuh N10.45 million over outstanding bills.

•Akwa United will be required to pay Osahon Uhunmwangbon and another N47 million for overdue accounts payable in revalidation of an earlier decision in 2015.

Post views: 284