Impunity was taken to another level last weekend in the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL as Elkanemi Warriors were allowed to field newly signed players in the opening match of the 2024/2025 season against Rangers of Enugu on Saturday.
The match was a public display of the failure of the integrity test by the NPFL and the officials, and it was taken to another level.
It saddened the heart to know that the officers of the league who are meant to protect the integrity of the league are the ones conniving officially to put the league into disrepute.
This is how it all started, Elkanemi Warriors along with some teams were barred from registering new players, and transferring old players by the Nigeria Football Federation Players Status and Arbitration Committee for violation of contractual agreement of their former players whose contract were arbitrarily terminated.
In their ruling the NFF committee ordered Elkanemi Warriors to pay Bala Yusuf, Emmanuel Adoyi and Suleiman Sodiq N750, 000, 1.65 million naira and 1 million naira respectfully.
In a letter written to the NPFL Chief Operations Officer, Davidson Owumi, sighted by this writer, the NPFL were duly informed about the ruling and with instruction not to allow the affected clubs to register new players or transfer old players until they comply fully with the ruling.
The NPFL and the Club Licensing department of the NFF violated the ruling and went ahead to allow Elkanemi Warriors to register and issued license for 12 new players despite their failure to defray their indebtedness to the players as our investigation shows that the club has not made any attempts to settle the debts of the players concerned.
In another letter, the NFF Players and Status wrote the office of the Chief Operations Officer headed by Davidson Owumi, on August 13, 2024 informing him of the need not to allow Elkanemi Warriors to use their newly signed players, who were signed and allowed to register by NPFL through the back door by contravening the ruling of a competent Committee of the NFF.
It is on record, that Adamu Bajibir from Kwara United, Bilay Yakubu from relegated Doma United, Aminu Mohammed and Ibrahim Mustapha Yuga from Kano Pillars were fielded by Elkanemi Warriors FC in the 2024/2025 NPFL opening match in Enugu against Enugu Rangers FC.
It is also on record that NPFL COO, Davidson Owumi, NPFL Chairman and NFF first vice President, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye and the NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau were all present in Enugu to watch the match, an open endorsement of the Impunity in the league, as Davidson Owumi never made a statement on any waiver or whatsoever on why Elkanemi Warriors should be allowed to violate a ruling of the football body without resulting to Court of Arbitration for Sports.
Infractions like this are no doubt a slap on the NFF as the chief regulator of football in the country and it’s a direct abuse of office by the officials of NPFL involved as they are succeeding in making the Players Status and Arbitration Committee useless like a watch dog with teeth but can’t bite.
The NFF must restore the usefulness of the committee by ensuring compliance of their rule at all levels and probably punish within the Federation laws, any officials who participated in this official impunity.
The NFF needs to act fast as players’ hope of getting justice through the committee’s ruling is fading and may be eventually denied if the impunity is not checked.
The NFF must ensure that other NPFL clubs like Enyimba, Abia Warriors, Akwa Utd, Wikki Tourists, Kwara Utd who will kick off their season this coming weekend are not allowed to use newly registered players without settling their indebtedness as the same judgement was passed on these clubs by the NFF Players’ Status and Arbitration Committee.
As a take away, in a forum, the NPFL Chairman, Gbenga Elegbeye was questioning why Nigerian players should go and play professional football in Benin Republic, Togo and some other African countries but flagrant display of official discipline like this answers it all.
The lesser countries are fast becoming a new haven for Nigerian players because their wages are guaranteed, paid before their sweat dries and cannot be owed by those clubs with their league bodies not sanctioning erring clubs as contractual dispute are resolved to a logical conclusion.
