ABUJA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's Minister of Youth and Sports on Monday directed the nation's football chief to comply with a ruling of the apex court which set aside his election into the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) four years ago.
In a statement signed by his spokeswoman, Solomon Dalung, the minister of youth and sports, urged the FA chief Amaju Pinnick and members of the executive committee to quit their positions with immediate effect.
The directive followed a written notification from the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of justice of requesting the federal ministry of youths and sports to ensure compliance of the court order, Dalung said.
The apex court ruled on a lawsuit contesting the election of Pinnick as helmsman of the local FA.
The verdict by the Nigerian Supreme Court on June 5 had restored the orders of a Federal High Court which set aside the purported election of Pinnick and the current executive committee of the NFF.
Chris Giwa, who is contesting Pinnick's election in court, was earlier banned from all football activities in the country as the controversy caused by the election raged on.
In its ruling, the apex court also considered Giwa's purported ban as "unconstitutional, null and void".
"It is a trite law that court orders are sacrosanct and any acts of disobedience to it constitute a threat to the rule of law," Dalung noted, saying in the absence of any other subsisting order or judgment to the contrary, Pinnick and others must obey the court's ruling by quitting office.
Pinnick, who led the Nigerian football officials to the ongoing Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup where Nigeria crashed out at the group stage, is yet to react to his sack by the court.
