The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, through the NFF Referees Committee has suspended three referees over poor officiating of NPFL matches.
The information made available to the Nigeria Referees Association, NRA was signed by the Secretary of the NFF Referees Committee, Hon Sani Zubairu (Fifa rtd).
According to the statement, the suspended Referees are barred from further participation from the league until they appear before the Referee’s Committee for explanation on what happened in their matches.
Referees suspended include the official in charge of Kwara United vs Shooting Stars game; Referee Ndubuisi Ukah from Imo State and Otuhwo Morrison of Delta State who was the Assistant Referee Two.
Also suspended by the NFF was Referee Faro Abdulrahman(Lagos State) who was in charge of the match between Rivers United vs Niger Tornadoes.
The suspension is the first of its kind coming from NFF in the current NPFL season. It’s widely regarded as part of its radical approach to change the league.
A part of its reform, the league organisers now also pay the Referees their indemnities before assignment- a trend which is targeted at maintaining the sanctity of the game