“Article 1.1 of the NFF statute states: Nigeria Football Federation is a private organization of an associative nature in compliance with the laws of Nigeria. It is formed for an unlimited period.

“There are several cases where civil issues in the management of football have gone to courts. The most recent is that of Egypt where a court also sacked the FA which has been obeyed.

“MINISTER’S STATEMENT: He as a party to the suit having dropped the Tweet on his Twitter handle. We are aware of his statement.

“Court of Arbitration for Sports: The board of the NFF went to the Court of Arbitration in Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland. A careful study of the judgment of this court remains a legal classicus.

“We challenged Fifa’s letter of 29th August 2014 before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in case number CAS/2014/37/44. In its arbitral awards, CAS rightly noted indeed, “NFF election as such and all NFF related NFF deeds have never been challenged before CAS. And surely, the CAS has no direct jurisdiction to review such NFF elections.”

“What this means is that the election of 26th August 2014 was never challenged before CAS. CAS had earlier held that, “conversely, the panel may not assess the validity of the various NFF elections on the basis of the NFF rules or of Nigerian law because such appraisal falls outside of the scope of Fifa’s authority under Article 17 of its statute and thus, falls outside of the panel’s scope of review.”

“Thus, then re-echoes through out CAS’s arbitral award, that it becomes clear that CAS never determined that we are duly elected on 26th August 2014. As a matter of fact, CAS pointedly put it in the following words: “the panel does not rule that the election of 26th August 2014 was invalid under its proper law because this finding would fall outside the scope of this panel’s review. Furthermore, the point must also be made that, in its arbitral award, CAS found out that Fifa could not be said to have given recognition to the purported election of 30th September 2014 in which Amaju Pinnick et al emerged.”

“The purpose of the second challenged letter which states in its relevant part was not (and could not have been) to recognise the election of 30th September 2014 as alleged by the Appellants because under its own rules Fifa does not have the authority to positively recognize the election of its member associations.”

“Since CAS did not rule that our election of 26th August 2014 was invalid, and also that Fifa could not be said to have recognised the purported election of 30th September 2014 in which Amaju Pinnick emerged, our election being the first in time subsists and takes precedence over the Warri election.

“FEDERAL HIGH COURT JOS: the reason why we went to the Federal High Court in Jos is in respect to our rights under Article 1.1 of the NFF Statute. However, Fifa’s letter of yesterday demanded if such provision was provided in our Statute. In respect of Article 1.1 of both Fifa and NFF, they were provided for. It states: Nigeria Football Federation is a private organization of an associative nature in compliance with the laws of Nigeria. It is formed for an unlimited period.”

“The court was our last resort as respectable citizens of this nation. We had patiently followed all the laid down processes. We got the orders of the court and that gave us the rights and the power to do what we are doing. Today, the laws of the land is on our side. We had come to equity and our hands are clean.