"There's no need to fight over the property." That's Arthur Kwame — a nonagenarian who was actually there when the deal was done — cutting through decades of institutional posturing with one sentence. The NFF and the Lagos State Football Association are locked in a dispute over 146/148 Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, and neither side is backing down quietly.
The flashpoint: a letter dated September 9, 2026, in which the NFF asked LSFA to vacate the Liaison Office so renovation work could begin. The NFF's position is straightforward — Lagos was only allowed to use the space temporarily while the Mobolaji Johnson Arena at Onikan was being refurbished. That's done now. Time to go.
LSFA Chairman Hajji Gafar sees it differently, and he has historical receipts to back it up. According to Gafar, the property was originally acquired by the Lagos Amateur Football Association (LAFA) under chairman Alhaji Alex Oni — bought directly from the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) when Chief Fadahunsi ran the outfit. That would make LSFA the original owner, and the NFF's directive would amount to a tenant evicting the landlord.
The paper trail problem
Kwame, who served as LAFA Secretary and has followed this property's history longer than most people have been alive, actually held the purchase receipt at one point. "Baba Alex Oni bought it as a camp from Chief Fadahunsi and paid cash," he confirmed. The problem? He can't find the receipt anymore. That missing document is the crux of everything.
Without it, the dispute lives in a grey area — one filled with oral history, rival institutional memory, and competing interpretations of decisions made in the 1960s. Dr. Patrick Ekeji, who used the camp in 1971/72 as a Nigerian Academical, put it plainly: "It might not be wrong to say it belongs to the NFA, now NFF." That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for either side.
Then there's the 1989 factor. Sports Minister Ikazoboh ordered associations out of the National Stadium, Lagos, and the NFF moved to Ogunlana Drive as a result. Kwame and Gafar both argue that forced relocation doesn't equal ownership transfer. But Mitchel Obi, who served as Special Adviser to Ikazoboh at the time, hints that the minister — an "Eko Brought Up" himself — formalised some kind of arrangement with Lagos. He's not ready to say what that arrangement was.
Where this goes from here
Kwame's proposed compromise — two wings, two associations, shared space — is the most sensible suggestion on the table. It won't satisfy anyone completely, which is usually the definition of a fair deal. Both the NFF and NPFL shared the premises when the professional league launched in 1990, so co-existence isn't exactly unprecedented here.
But institutional disputes rarely get solved by wisdom alone. The NFF has bureaucratic weight. LSFA has historical claim and local political backing. And the man who actually knows where that original receipt is? He lost it.
