The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) suspended 14 referees due to poor officiating and refereeing.
This development was made known after the Nigerian Professional League(NPL) Chief Operating Officer l, David Owumi received a letter from the Federations Referee Development Committee earlier on Monday, November 6th.
The referees suspended include the following names; Bawa Buhari, Chukwuka Jahlove, Akinwale Tomiwa, Saeed Abdulaziz, Jimmy Aimugbonrie, Brown Ebenezer and Atuwho Morrison.
Other referees include, Imamu Maliki, Sunday Azi and the four match officials involved in a matchday six clash between Sunshine Stars and Abia Warriors.
However, for further review, the NFF refereeing development unit made a requisition for the video footages where the aforementioned NPFL referees officiated poorly as evidence.
The matches selected include three fixtures of Niger Tornadoes and two games of Sporting Lagos.Moreso, other matches selected were the Niger Tornadoes’ matchday two clash against Rivers United which the host (Tornadoes) won by a lone goal and their matchday four home game against Bayelsa United in which they also won with a single goal. More matches like Tornadoes’ matchday five away fixture where Sporting Lagos won with a 2-1 victory.Another Sporting Lagos game selected was matchday six away fixture played against Kwara United where they lost 2-1. The Sunshine Stars vs Abia Warriors game wasn’t also neglected.
Other games handpicked were Gombe United vs Plateau United on matchday five and the game between Bendel Insurance and Remo Stars on matchday seven.The letter further stated and in quote, “We write to convey to you and the entire Board and Management of the Nigeria Professional Football League, the warm sporting regards of the NFF Referees’ Development Committiee members.“Sir, sequel to the perceived poor performance of the referee/assistant referees in the under-listed NPFL matches, we are obliged to step down the specifically affected match officials in the line of the decision in such instant cases until the appropriate technical evaluation of such decisions are determined to be either right or wrong.
“Furthermore, the committee would very much appreciate if the full video of these matches were provided to the committee for proper evaluation of decisions and performances of these officials.”