Dauda Accepts Barrister Mark Jacob As HFN President.

Facts emerging from the Office of President of Handball Federation of Nigeria indicate that the incumbent President, Yusuf Dauda has accepted to abide by the resolutions reached over the weekend by the Handball Stakeholders of Nigeria to allow the former Vice President of Federation Barrister Mark Jacob to be the sole flag bearer for the position of president come April this year.

Analysts believe that his decision to stand down may be necessitated by his current position as the head of National Examination Council (NECO) in Kaduna state.

 Also, the current board which he presides over has been defragmented to a level that the last board meeting of the federation was held over two years ago.

 Possibly, this made him to see the need to allow a neutral person to come in and reconcile all the factions in order to develop the game of handball and subsequently place it in the perking order of sports in Nigeria.

Though the secretary of Handball Federation of Nigeria, Olusola Luke was not reached for immediate comment but a visit to HFN office in the National Stadium Lagos shows that the staff are complaining of the disconnect between the board and the secretariat.

 In a swift reaction, the incumbent President has stepped down for Mark Jacob, his official spokesman, Saidu Jibril described it as a welcome development saying that he believes that Yusuf Dauda has read the handwriting on the wall and subsequently decided to follow the path of honour.

He stated that Jacob earlier rejected the call to contest the position of the president of the association but was convinced by the larger handball family in the country who saw him as the most viable candidate in this trying period of the game in the country. Saidu regrettably recollected when handball was second to football in Nigeria stressing that the current board did virtually nothing to remedy the ugly situation.

 “We cannot allow this game to die. We have invested all our lives to the development of this game and we cannot allow anybody to run it down. Once again, I want to thank him for following the path of honour by doing the right thing” he said.