Giwa vs Amaju: Supreme Court gives final verdict on Monday

The protracted legal battle between the two factions of the Nigeria Football Federation  led by Chris Giwa and Pinnick Amaju respectively will come to an end on Monday as the country’s apex court, the Supreme Court has fixed that day for the final verdict.
Counsels to both parties submitted their defence last week after the matter had suffered two adjournments on the grounds that the defendants’ lawyers refused to file their defence.
Giwa and his board members approached the Supreme Court to set aside the verdict of the Appeal Court after they had won at the high court claiming that the mandate given to them at the Chida Hotel, Abuja by the congress of the NFF in August 2013 was sacrosanct. They also insist that the Warri election that brought in the other group was held in defiance of a high court order while asking the Supreme Court to uphold the Chida Hotel election as the defendants cannot gain from disobedience of court.
The defendants have held on tenaciously to FIFA statutes telling the Supreme Court in their submission that football matters must not be adjudicated in the ordinary court insisting that the plaintiffs have been banned by the global football-ruling body.
But a legal luminary, Rilwane Ali Esq, throwing light on the matter said the onus is now on the justices of the apex court to determine if FIFA laws are superior to Nigeria’s laws and also if the football statutes have been domesticated in Nigeria.
Rilwane argued that even ousted FIFA boss Sepp Blatter was tried under Swiss Civil Codes saying that the Supreme Court verdict will lay a very good foundation for football management in Nigeria.