Pinnick, NFF Secretary Sanusi Mohammed, first Vice-President Seyi Akinwumi, the second Vice-President Shehu Dikko and Executive member Yusuf Fresh were mentioned in a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, May 7 by the Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) on behalf of the Federal Government. 

According to the suit, the SPIP accused the NFF top brass of misappropriation of N3m ($8400) belonging to the federation and also ‘moving dishonestly and intentionally the sum of about N4b’ belonging to the NFF without the consent of the body. 

Also in the file, the Pinnick and his other NFF top officials were accused of failing to declare their assets. 

In their response, however, the NFF have continued to deny any wrongdoing, terming the charge malicious from the chairman of SPIP Okoi Obono-Obla. 

In fact, the NFF claim that they have a suit filed against SPIP at the Federal High Court to challenge the competence of the panel. 

The matter came up for hearing in April but the counsel to the SPIP applied for an adjournment with the new sitting date set for Monday, May 13. 

The NFF in their statement said that the charge against their top brass is in contempt of the law and courts of Nigeria. 

“It is an issue that must befuddle the mind and be of great concern to all Nigerians that the same SPIP should, against the foregoing background then proceed to allegedly file charges in the name of the FGN before the same Federal High Court while the pending suit filed by NFF against it is yet to be determined,” the NFF said in their statement. 

“The determination of SPIP and Chief Okono-Obla to act unlawfully and in undisguised bias against NFF and its leadership is well documented and forms the basis of NFF’s petition to the Hon. Attorney-General and Minister of Justice since January 2019, as well joining the office of the Hon. Attorney-General in all the suits we have filed against SPIP. 

“We are confident that this regrettable matter will be appropriately dealt with in the due course.”

The NFF insist the charges against the President and four other top officials are ‘frivolous and totally baseless’.

“They are aimed only at scandalising the NFF and its leadership and nothing more, in order to mislead the unwary and uninformed,” the NFF also said in their statement. 

The NFF also in their statement denied spending N4b which they claim was four times the money allocated to the NFF in 2018. 

“We wish to state that none of the persons in the leadership of NFF or Executive Committee are signatories or in control of NFF accounts as those roles are exclusively reserved and performed by directors and personnel appointed by FGN from the offices of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Auditor-General of the Federation,” part of the statement also read. 

In their statement, the NFF also alluded that the SPIP is colluding with detractors of the federation including Chris Giwa, the one-time self-imposed leader of the body.

“It is important, and interesting, to note that the proposed list of witnesses of SPIP consists entirely of the names of the same persons who have publicly been engaged in fighting the duly elected leadership of NFF," the NFF said in the statement. 

The NFF under the leadership of Pinnick have been accused several times of corrupt practices although the allegations have never been substantiated.