NBBF board candidate sues Dalung, asks court to stop election
A candidate for the board of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), Alhassan Auwalu has filed an action against the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung at a Federal High Court in Abuja over the election into the board of the federation.
Auwalu wants the court to make an order of interim injunction restraining the minister, the NBBF, the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) and two members of the committee Abdulrasaq Salau and Tunde Popoola from holding the election billed for Tuesday, June 13 on the basis of a new document christened, “Guidelines for Elections into Boards of National Sports Federations.”
In the application by his counsel Josiah Daniel-Ebune yesterday, Auwalu wants the court to declare the document as ultra vires, illegal, irregular, arbitrary, oppressive, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
Auwalu, who is the proprietor of the amateur Abuja Allstar Academy, and was nominated to contest the election as the North-Central Representative on the board of the NBBF, said the document produced by the defendants is an interference into the autonomy of the federation and denies him of his right to seek the office.
He alleged that by producing the said guidelines, Salau and Popoola, who are both Acting Permanent Secretary and Secretary General of the NOC, amounted to usurpation of the constitution of the federation, breach of relevant provisions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Federation of International Basketball Statutes, 2014, Olympic Charter, and the NBBF Electoral Panel 2017 Election Rules and Regulations.
While praying the court to stop the election, he said that, “as a stakeholder in professional basketball, the plaintiffs earn a living from professional basketball activity at amateur level, and the intention of the defendants in issuing ‘Exhibit F’ (the guidelines) is to exclude me from contesting into the office of the 3rd defendant as I evinced in Exhibit H.”
“That by ‘Exhibit I’ the Federation of International Basketball has made it clear that if Exhibit F is allowed to remain extant, it will wield the big axe against the 3rd defendant and as a consequence all the benefits of international exposures, privileges, trainings and awards the plaintiff and other stakeholders in Nigeria basketball stands to enjoy will be completely foreclosed and denied,” he added.
No date has been fixed for hearing.