IT’S OFFICIAL: Shehu Dikko, Ahmed Yusuf ‘Fresh’ Surrender To Pinnick Third Term Bid
LMC Chairman Shehu Dikko and NFF Executive Committee Member Ahmed Yusuf ‘Fresh’ have finally given up their ambition to lead Nigeria Football and have instead gone ahead to tell some members of the NFF Congress they will now support Amaju Pinnick’s bid for a third term in office.
This is the first time that top NFF officials have opened up to Stakeholders that Pinnick will seek a third term as NFF President.
Shehu Dikko and ‘Fresh’ addressed a handful of FA Chairmen among whom were Nasarawa FA boss Ibrahim Alkali and the recently “appointed” Anambra FA Chairman Chikelue Iloenyosi at a hotel in Abuja Wednesday night.
In this meeting they revealed Pinnick will be on the ballot whenever the NFF Elections will be conducted and that they are solidly behind the incumbent.
This is a sharp about-turn especially for Shehu Dikko, who had earlier boasted that he will be the next NFF President and that Pinnick will even campaign for him to be elected.
Close watchers said this was only a decoy and that the Game Plan was always that Pinnick will not step down despite pressures from many quarters to do so.
It was further learnt that Pinnick has promised Shehu Dikko to renew his appointment as LMC Chairman for another three years.
The LMC Chairman claimed in his address to the FA Chairmen, who received $200 each from him, that Pinnick’s third term was signed and sealed with Sports Minister Sunday Dare during the coronation of Rivers United as NPFL champions in Port Harcourt recently.
They and the Sports Minister also agreed that many of the far-reaching recommendations of the Master Plan Committee will be implemented by Pinnick when he is back in the saddle for a third time.
However, some close watchers said Shehu Dikko was only dropping names as is his usual style.
‘Fresh’, on the other hand, has tried to demonstrate his loyalty to Pinnick even though he also nurses his own ambitions and at the same time he is playing a double game with his old friend and ally Ibrahim Gusau.
A source close to the Niger FA Chairman told www.insideglasshouse.com that ‘Fresh’ has not forgotten or forgiven how he openly cried in the hall on Election day when Gusau came close to getting him booted out of the NFF Executive Committee in Katsina four years ago.
He has sworn to pay the Chairman of Chairmen back in his own coin… at the right time.
