FECAFOOT: JB Ndeh and Abdouraman summoned by Yang

Prime Minister Philemon Yang has summoned John B. Ndeh and Abdouraman Hamadou Babba to a stormy meeting at the Star Building, following the annulment of the September 28 FECAFOOT elections in which Tombi a Roko was declared winner.

Tombi a Roko, should be recalled, served as Secretary General of FECAFOOT. while John Ndeh, former Transport Minister, was first Vice President to Iya Mohammed, who is now serving a 15-year jail term for embezzling funds at the Cameroon Cotton Development Corporation, commonly known as SODECOTON.

Details as to why the PM summoned both JB Ndeh and Abdouraman to today’s meeting are still sketchy but we gathered from a close aide to JB Ndeh that he would be going to the meeting with a copy of the decision of the Conciliation and Arbitration Chamber of the Cameroon National Sports and Olympic Committee, reversing the election of Tombi a Roko.

It is worth noting that the Conciliation and Arbitration Chamber had on November 12 declared the electoral procedure for the election of the dissolved executive bureau of the Cameroon Football Association invalid.

The decision brought to naught all the efforts and financial input (over 700 million FCFA) put into the electoral process which, according to the chamber, wrongfully catapulted Tombi a Roko from the post of Secretary General of the federation to that of President.

The decision came as a verdict on a complaint filed by the jailed FECAFOOT president’s former director of cabinet, Abdouraman Hamadou Babba who is also the president of the football club, Etoile Filante of Garoua and an aspiring candidate for the FECAFOOT presidency.

He had protested that the rules and regulations governing the election that Tombi won were illegal. The chamber upheld his argument, stating that the non-respect of the rule which barred divisional delegates of FECAFOOT from taking part in the elections at the national level was good enough to distort the outcome of the election.

The annulment of the election did not only cancel Tombi a Roko’s victory, but invalidates certain decisions taken by FECAFOOT during Tombi’s 45-day reign at the helm of FECAFOOT.

While Tombi’s team is expected to step aside and appeal the decision of the arbitration court within 21 days, if it dims fit, the lone official who has the competence to run FECAFOOT affairs till the election of a new executive, is John B. Ndeh, as per the texts of the federation.

That will mean that the Iya Mohamed executive of the 2009 elective general assembly will once more be back to take over control of football affairs in Cameroon.

Abdouraman had once worked for the world football governing body, FIFA, as head of the electronic project for Cameroon and Africa. He resigned from FECAFOOT in 2009 and later claimed it was because his life and that of his family were in danger.

It is not clear whether the PM would guarantee government’s support for a peaceful takeover for John B Ndeh and his team, until fresh elections are conducted.