Suspended FIFA official Amos Adamu has asked Nigeria's high court to keep authorities in the country from investigating him over the World Cup vote-selling scandal.
Court papers show that Adamu's lawyer, Niyi Ayoola-Daniels, requested the order in Abuja on Monday.
The order says Nigeria's anti-graft bodies, police and courts ''lack the authority'' to question Adamu, who was banned for three years by the ethics panel for world football's governing body on Nov. 18 after being linked to bribe-taking in a British newspaper's undercover sting.
Adamu was absent but said in an affidavit he is concerned by comments from Nigerian authorities.
No decision was made and the case was adjourned until Jan. 17.
Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had only read about Adamu's court request in the media.
''How can somebody be abroad and be speculating that we want to arrest him?'' asked Babafemi, adding that Adamu hadn't returned to Nigeria since leaving just as the scandal broke.
Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, the president of Oceania's confederation, was also suspended for one year for breaching FIFA's loyalty and confidentiality rules when he was secretly filmed in the undercover sting.
With Adamu and Temarii suspended, 22 FIFA ruling committee members - instead of 24 - voted in the World Cup secret ballots on Dec. 2 in Zurich to award the 2018 tournament to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.
