Shame as Pinnick, Giwa fight at NFF peace parley

Nifemi Daniel

It was a ding dong affair Wednesday evening as Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick, and club owner, Chris Giwa turned the Youth and Sports Minister’s office at the National Stadium Abuja into a boxing ring.

Both men were were invited by Minister Solomon Dalung to a peace parley to settle their differences.
The Minister is attempting to mediate into the crisis and invited the two factions to a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday to resolve the impasse.

Trouble started when Giwa was trying to interrupt Pinnick when he was making his submission. The NFF President did not say anything when his rival was talking and found it unbearable to see Giwa intruding when he had the floor.

Pinnick flared up and started a shouting bout with the two men calling each other unprintable names.

Read also: NFF: Eagles in top shape for CHAN

Despite the intervention of the Minister and the Director General of the National Sports Commission, Alhassan Yakmut, Pinnick and Giwa physically attacked each other. This was despite the Minister’s threat to invite security operatives to ‘throw out’ the fighting men.

Dalung was particularly miffed at Pinnick’s use of foul words which caused the fracas and urged him to apologise not only to the people at the meeting but particularly to his rival, Giwa.

Although the meeting proceeded after the imbroglio, it was inconclusive as at press time.

14 months after the election that brought in Pinnick, Giwa is still claiming that the August 28, 2014 poll that he won was credible and Pinnick should not have been parading himself as the President of the NFF.

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