Glass House deserted

 Most of the candidates for the forthcoming Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) elections billed for Warri, Delta State have admitted that fear has gripped them, following the uncertainty over the court action instituted by the Ambassador Chris Giwa-led faction to stop the election.In what seems to be a confirmation of their claims, a check at the secretariat of the Nigerian Football Federation by our correspondent in Abuja revealed that most of the management staff have continuously avoided the Glass House to forestall the possibility of the bailiff serving the court order. Although the electoral committee had released the lists of the certified candidates for the election, however, most of the candidates that spoke on condition of anonymity told Daily Sunsports that the coast has not been cleared on whether the election would still hold next week.
While revealing that most of them were banking on the plans to vacate the court order, they equally blamed the low-key build-up to the election on the uncertainty surrounding the possibility of vacating the order.
“What do you expect me to say? You can see for yourself that nothing seems to be working apart from the electoral committee that has continued with the preparation for the election. The truth is that we are very uncertain whether the election will actually hold, considering the court order from Jos,” one of the aspirants quipped.
Speaking further, he said: “I was even told that the court order has been pasted at the Glass House, but whether we like it or not, it has affected the build-up to the election. I heard that there were plans to vacate the order for the election to hold and if you ask me, only such measure can make the proposed election a reality.”
In the same vein, another candidate for the election noted: “Nigerian football is really on trial with this crisis. Looking at the build-up to the election of this magnitude, it is obvious. You can even see that most of the candidates have been unusually quite, especially in the media because of the uncertainty over the election.
“How many of them, especially those vying for the presidency are selling their programmes through the media. The truth is that some of the candidates are now living in fear of arrest because there are rumours of the security agents picking up some of the key stakeholders. There may be truth in it because many of them have been in and out of the detention,” he added.
In fact, the situation was worse at the Glass House, which had become a ghost house, following the continued absence of the management staff, which many believed adopted such tactical plan to evade the court order.
After the efforts of the Nigeria police, who searched the visitors and federation staff on Monday to stop the bailiff from serving the court proved abortive, the management probably preferred to operate outside the federation.

NFF elective congress: Fear grips contestants over court order