Taraba FA chairman appeals against his removal

The embattled Chairman of the Taraba State Football Association (FA), Timothy Heman, has appealed against his removal by the Federal High Court in Jalingo.

He approached the Court of Appeal in Yola seeking a stay of execution after a judge ruled that he was not the valid state chairman of the association.

Heman, in a suit before the court, prayed the judge to restrain his opponent, Mahmud Sanusi Mohammed, from executing the judge’s order pending the determination of his appeal suit.

Justice Simon Akpah Amobeda, in a judgment delivered last Tuesday in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, had asked Heman to stop parading himself as the chairman of the Taraba FA.

“The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should also recognise Mahmud as chairman of the football association in Taraba,” the court held.

Meanwhile, speaking with journalists yesterday in Jalingo, counsel to Heman, Bweno Dauda, said: “The trial judge erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when he assumed jurisdiction to entertain and determine the suit between the parties.”

The respondents, according to Dauda, lacked the locus standi to sue the appellant having not aspired for or contested the election that was challenged in the suit.

But in a swift reaction, counsel to Mohammed, Isa Buba, said: “The appellant has the right to appeal. So, we are not afraid.”