Tuesday, December 01, 2009              

NPL board backs Obaseki for second term, constitutes electoral committee
From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja

THE board of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) has expressed readiness to support its incumbent chairman, Oyuki Obaseki, for a second term come February when elections to the next board will hold.

The Guardian learnt that the board, which met last week in Abuja, agreed that it would allow Obaseki to continue as chairman because of the changes he brought to the Premier League, adding that it had not seen anybody capable of surpassing the chairman's achievements for now.

It argued that Obaseki's transformation of the Nigerian Premier League led to the good performance of Nigerian clubs in continental championships, using the feat performed by Kano Pillars and Heartland of Owerri respectively in the 2009 CAF Champions League as proof.

The board also constituted a seven-man committee, headed by Muazu Suleiman, to see to the smooth conduct of elections into the new board of the NPL in February 2010. The committee, among other things, was charged with the responsibility of drawing up a guideline, screening all aspirants to the board, as well as ensuring that the election into the new board was conducted in a free and fair manner, with Section 32 of the NPL statute as a guide.

Other members of the board, which would be inaugurated on Friday, the 11th of this month at the new secretariat of the NPL, are former board member of the defunct Nigeria Football Association, Nwabufor Obienu, Julius Government, Gana Kachala, Isaac Danladi, Ben Memuletiwon and Paul Bassey, who will work as secretary. The tenure of the present board will end in March 2010.