Anambra FA:  Aniuno slams NFF for imposing Ifeanyi Ubah

As the controversy surrounding the conduct of “secret elections” into the Anambra State Football Association continues, chairmanship aspirant in those elections, Olisa Aniuno, has slammed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for what he describes as an “imposition of a candidate” on Anambra FA.
The NFF had announced Wednesday the 4th of May for the elections into the board, and this much was reiterated by the normalisation committee in charge of the elections, led by Ephraim Chukuemeka when they visited the state on April 28.
But the committee went ahead to hold ‘elections’ into the board on the 3rd, 24 hours before the scheduled date, a development which has irked Aniuno, a frontrunner in the chairmanship race.
“When they (normalisation committee) came and addressed us on the 28th of April, they announced they were going ahead with the elections as scheduled and to continue from where the former committee stopped,” Aniuno state in an interview.
“But then they announced they were reopening the sale of forms, even though this process had already been concluded since July 2015.
“At this point, I realised it was a ploy and a confirmation of what I already heard that they were coming with a mandate to impose a candidate on the football association of Anambra State.”
The ‘secret elections’ threw up billionaire businessman Ifeanyi Ubah as chairman of the Anambra State FA, a development which has seen Aniuno petition both the NFF and the sports minister, Solomon Dalung.
In the petitions, Aniuno prayed for the entire process to be cancelled, and that the Ephraim Chukwuemeka normalisation committee should be ‘barred from conducting the new elections as the committee showed gross incompetence, bias and mischief in their entire conduct’.
“What happened on the 3rd of May was a sham,” he continued. “The process was tainted from the beginning by the same people led by Ephraim Chukwuemeka because there were no elections, all they did was announce results,” he alleged.
“How can you have people that are corrupt conduct elections for us? And they have shown their corrupt personalities in the conduct of the executive elections.
“So, the whole process was marred by a group of people bent on carrying out an illegitimate act.”
Meanwhile, both the NFF and the sports minster are yet to react publicly to these claims.