One of the Southwest FECAFOOT presidential candidates, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, has vowed to contest the result of the FECAFOOT election conducted on November 7, 2014.
Barrister Agbor Nkongho was speaking at Mountain Hotel to reporters after losing the election to Senator Charles Mbella Moki by six votes to seven. According to the legal practitioner, the election was characterised by electoral malpractices.
“The electoral process was not free and fair. We had a lot of election malpractices. The fact that a team which is not participating in the Division II League like Botafogo was allowed to vote, defeats the whole purpose of us trying to bring change in FECAFOOT. I wonder why the learned Professor Ngwafor would accept a document signed by the Founder of Mount Cameroon FC and reject another signed by the Founder of Continental FC. From all indications, he was more like a system person, trying to support a certain candidate. But I think we fought a good fight, gave Senator Mbella Moki a good run and all attempts to disqualify me and intimidate all those supporting me did not yield any fruits. I congratulated him for his victory, but it was a sad day for football in the Region, Agbor Balla lamented.
On whether he will collaborate with the President elect, the former United Nations Legal Consultant to Afghanistan said; “The first thing I would do is to consult my team, we are filing an appeal because we think that the process was not transparent,” he said.
On his part, Senator Mbella Moki said he was not surprised that he was reelected President of the Southwest Regional Bureau of FECAFOOT.
“I am not surprised because before I got into this race, I did some cross-checking, and I saw where the victory was tilting to and so the outcome does not surprise me. I equally noticed a few problems which were overlooked. But I don’t want to be violent or talkative; I want to be responsible and show a mastery of situations. I can tell you that we have a wonderful sporting public, which is not swayed by irresponsible commentaries and none-mastery of laws and regulations governing football. I want to thank God for making our list emerge as the winning list, in spite of the machinations, manipulations which I will not love to highlight. If we were not talking about them, it is not because we were not seeing them, but because we wanted to be responsible and operate in a civilised manner,” he said.
The President elect said he has a team of tested football technocrats like the Vice President, Charles Eteki, who managed Tiko United and won the Elite One title with the club, and the Founder of Mount Cameroon FC, Hon Fonding, who brought the Cameroon Cup to the Southwest Region.
“We understand the problems of football in the Southwest Region, we know how to address them and how to articulate them,”Mbella Moki said.
The Senator, nevertheless, congratulated his opponent for competing against him in the first place, but said he failed to engage in a learning process, so as to be absorbed gradually into the family of football.
“You don’t emerge in football in one day, or build stories in football to become a hero. There are practicalities that are usable in football. It is these practicalities that have made our list a wining list today. We are going to invite Barrister Agbor on board and work with him,” he said.
Heading the delegates from the Normilisation Committee, Professor Ephraim Ngwafor said he was very satisfied with members of the Electoral College and the leaders of the two lists for their sense of fair play exhibited after the election. This, he said, demonstrated that, democracy per excellence is gradually finding its place not only in the Southwest, but in Cameroon at large.
Talking about the indication of a petition against the election, Prof Ngwafor said; “That is what democracy is all about. If you feel that you are not satisfied and you want to make sure that at the end of the day you are satisfied that if you lost is because you did not win, then you can petition. That is why I am encouraging him to do so, because there is an appeal level. They will listen to him and, who knows. Let’s keep it open. We are wishing him good luck,” Prof Ngwafor averred.
It should be recalled that before the commencement of the voting exercise, Prof Ngwafor told all those present that he has been given a modus operandi to conduct the elections, and will not go out of the guidelines.
“Cameroon is a State of law, we shall use the law as it is, not as is ought to be. That is why we will not entertain a cross pollination of ideas here, ” he warned. The panel that supervised the election was made up of; Professor Ephraim Ngwafor as head, Eyong Besong as Rapporteur, Justice Charles Menyoli as member and Barrister Hurbert Eboa as member.
