Pinnick Looks Forward to Fourth Nigeria Pitch Awards

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, has charged organisers of the Nigeria Pitch Awards to ensure a seamless fourth edition of the Awards, which ceremony comes up in Uyo on Saturday.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, the CAF Executive Committee member and President of the Organizing Committee for the Africa Cup of Nations insisted the NFF has continued to back the Pitch Awards because the leadership is enamoured by its transparency, credibility and integrity in the four years of the event.

“The Nigeria Football Federation is satisfied with the processes that the organizers bring into play for selection of voters, nomination, collation and eventual declaration of the winners. We urge the organizers to retain those processes for the good of the Awards.

“Awards serve a special purpose for professionals; they motivate in a way that we can hardly imagine.”

Organisers of the Awards, Matchmakers Consult International Limited, confirmed Tuesday that Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel, who is nominated for Football Friendly Governor of the Year alongside Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos and Ezenwo Nyesom Wike of Rivers, will attend Saturday night’s programme, scheduled to begin at 8pm at the Nwaniba Hall of the Le Meridien Hotel and Golf Resort.

The nominees for the 4th Nigeria Pitch Awards were made known last month, after SIAO Partners Limited, the collating and verification firm, released the results to the Nigeria Football Federation.

In a letter to the NFF President, signed by SIAO’s Managing Partner, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, the auditing firm explained that the voting was done by Nigeria sports editors/managers across the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT.