By Phillip Adefioye
A constitutional lawyer, Bello Aidoloje has faulted the decision of the Professor Akin Ibidapo-Obe Arbitration panel to annul the election of Davidson Owumi as chairman of the Nigerian Premier League.

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard in an exclusive interview, Aidolojie said Professor Ibidapo-Obe has no jurisdiction to sit on the case between Owumi and Ransome Baribote since the guideline of the NPL election was clear that the Appeals Committee was the final arbiter in the case of a disagreement with the result of the election.

“If the law was certain, if the contestants were sure that the Appeals Committee was the final arbiter on electoral disputes which they subscribed to before going into the elections, then they should not have gone beyond that relying on the status of FIFA. They couldn’t have been another committee or panel beyond the Appeals Committee which ratified the election of Davison Owumi as chairman of chairmen  and secondly as chairman of the NPL,”he argued.

Describing the NFA as an incompetent body, the lawyer said that “ we have tolerated the NFA for too long. This is an opportunity to chase them out because none  of them has business with football. If they had before, Nigeria has moved beyond their level.”

He said he would not bother himself the Professor Ibidapo-Obe committee because “It is a stupid report not worthy of any mention.,” stressing that “in an arbitration, you seek the opinion of the parties you want to arbitrate against, whether they are agreeing to your terms. It is not imposition, they agree. In arbitration, parties learn to agree and not being forced to agree, that is why it is an  arbitration.”