By Jacob Ajom
Immediate past president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Sani Ahmed Lulu, his first vice, Amanze Uchegbulam and erstwhile chairman of the NFF technical committee, Taiwo Ogunjobi have jointly rejected reports that the Court of Arbitration for Sports(CAS) had thrown out their petition against the present board of the federation over what they considered as their “wrongful impeachment from office”

In a sharp reaction to the news yesterday, one of the appellants, Amanze Uchegbulam denied that the case had been thrown out by CAS.

“It is wrong to say CAS had thrown out our case when the case has not come up for hearing yet,” Uchegbulam said.
“All we have been asked to do is to pay the administrative fee which we have done,” the former NFF vice president said, showing documents to back up his claim.

The CAS fixes the administrative costs for each case of arbitration subject to Art. R64 of the code.

By the statutes of the international mediating body on sports matters, both appellants and respondents must pay the court separate fees(administrative costs) before deliberations on the case begin.

According to the schedule of arbitration costs in force since 1 January 2010, each party involved in a dispute submitted to CAS arbitration must pay the court office a minimum sum of five hundred Swiss francs in order for his application for arbitration or appeal to be registered.

Lulu and his co-appellants were charged six thousand Swiss franc each totaling eighteen thousand Swiss franc.