The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday clarified
issues on the alleged charges against its president, Amaju Pinnick and four
other top officials of the football governing body.
Recall that the NFF boss was alleged to have misappropriated
$8,400 belonging to the football body.
In a 17-count charge, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/93/2019, filed
before the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, the money was said to have
been paid by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to
the NFF as appearance fees in the group state of the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Named with Pinnick in the charge, are NFF Secretary, Sunusi
Mohammed; the 1st Vice-President, Seyi Akinwumi; the 2nd Vice-President, Shehu
Dikko and an Executive member, Yusuff Fresh.
The defendants were also accused of “moving dishonestly and
intentionally the sum of about N4bn” belonging to the NFF without the consent
of the NFF.
The five are also accused, in the charge filed by the
Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property
(SPIP), led by Okoi Obono-Obla, of failing and neglecting to declare their
assets.
However, in a swift response, the Chairman, NFF Media and
Publicity Committee Suleman Yahaya Kwade in a statement denied knowledge of
such charges by the federal government against its president and other leaders
of the NFF.
Read full statement below:
FOR THE RECORDS
RE: NIGERIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION (NFF) DENIES ALLEGED CHARGES
BY FGN
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) notes that it has been
inundated with enquiries about charges allegedly filed against its leadership
(Amaju Melvin Pinnick, Seyi Akinwunmi, Shehu Dikko, Ahmed Fresh and Mohammed
Sanusi) by the Federal Government of Nigeria. NFF denies that FG has filed any
such charges. NFF states that the orchestrated media blitz about the existence
of such charges is nothing but the desperate and malicious efforts of the Chief
Okoi Obono-Obla led Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) to lend
itself as an instrument of cheap blackmail in the fight for the political
leadership of NFF.
Currently pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja is
Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/17/2019 filed by NFF against SPIP and 3 others, including
Chief Obono-Obla himself. NFF in the suit is challenging the competence of SPIP
under the law to purport to investigate or prosecute NFF or its leadership.
When the matter came up for hearing on April 20, 2019, Barrister Celsus Ukpong,
the lawyer representing SPIP wrote a letter applying for an adjournment of the
matter, as he could not appear in court for official reasons. The suit was
accordingly adjourned to May 13, 2019 for definite hearing.
It is an issue that must befuddle the mind and be of great
concern to all Nigerians that the same SPIP should, against the foregoing
background then proceed to allegedly file charges in the name of the FGN before
the same Federal High Court while the pending suit filed by NFF against it is
yet to be determined.
It should now be clear to all that the SPIP under Chief
Obono-Obla is acting in contempt of the laws and Courts of Nigeria. Even more
deplorable is the fact that its legal representatives will employ deception in
dealing with the Court of law regarding a suit to which it is a party and fully
represented in court.
The determination of SPIP and Chief Okono-Obla to act
unlawfully and in undisguised bias against NFF and its leadership is well
documented and forms the basis of NFF’s petition to the Hon. Attorney-General
and Minister of Justice since January 2019, as well joining the office of the
Hon. Attorney-General in all the suits we have filed against SPIP. We are
confident that this regrettable matter will be appropriately dealt with in the
due course.
We wish to state categorically that the charges filed by
SPIP are frivolous and totally baseless. They are aimed only at scandalising
the NFF and its leadership and nothing more, in order to mislead the unwary and
uninformed. This is evident from the great facility with which the news of the
charges which were registered at the court’s registry today, May 7, 2019, have
been widely disseminated by SPIP and its collaborators.
For instance, SPIP alleges that the leadership of NFF moved
N4Billion (Four Billion Naira) from NFF on 3 November 2018. The maliciousness
and falsity of this charge is established by the fact that the alleged sum is
about four times the 2018 NFF Appropriation in the FGN budget as approved by
the National Assembly, which in total was N1.14 Billion (One Billion, One
Hundred and Fourteen Million Naira), out of which only about N700m (Seven
Hundred Million Naira) was cash-backed for the entire 2018 financial year. It
is also on record that since June 2018 till date NFF has only received N110m
(One Hundred and Ten Million Naira only) from FGN (which was received only in
February, 2019). This is in spite of the fact that NFF has prosecuted about 30
international matches involving the various national teams, (Super Eagles,
Falcons, U23 Men Team, U20 Boys, U17 Eaglets, U20 Girls (Falconets), Supersand
Eagles etc), requiring the NFF to raise funds independently to supplement the
funds from the FGN.
Another example of the desperation and wickedness motivating
these false allegations is the SPIP allegation that, in 2014 “during the FIFA
World Cup at Abuja”, FIFA appearance fees paid by FIFA was converted to
personal use. This is despite the fact that there was no FIFA World Cup in
Abuja in 2014, a naked fact known to the whole world. The consuming
determination to achieve the goal of slandering the NFF and smearing the
reputation of its leadership has made these elements blind to simple facts and
reckless.
We wish to state that none of the persons in the leadership
of NFF or Executive Committee are signatories or in control of NFF accounts as
those roles are exclusively reserved and performed by directors and personnel
appointed by FGN from the offices of the Accountant-General of the Federation
and Auditor-General of the Federation.
Also, NFF under Amaju Pinnick, has since 2014, kept true
financial records of NFF Funds as audited by its external auditors PwC
(PrieceWaterHouseCoopers) and has taken the extra step of publishing the
audited accounts in national newspapers for public consumption and records.
Furthermore, FIFA has consistently given a clean bill of
health to NFF regarding its management of FIFA funds. FIFA has never alleged
any fraud or misappropriation of its resources or funds made available to NFF
and has continued to engage the NFF in its normal operational transactions.
It is important, and interesting, to note that the proposed
list of witnesses of SPIP consists entirely of the names of the same persons
who have publicly been engaged in fighting the duly elected leadership of NFF,
including the forceful takeover of the NFF office in July 2018, the filing of
multiple suits to stop the NFF elections of September 20, 2018 in Katsina, Katsina
State and the presentation of the same false petitions to all the law
enforcement agencies in Nigeria. This should say a lot about these false
allegations and the manner of persons actively working in cahoots with Chief
Obon-Obla led SPIP to discredit the NFF and its leadership evidently to achieve
what they failed to do through the ballot box – which is to effect a change of
leadership in in the NFF.
However, it is much to be regretted that these elements have
also sought to embarrass our sponsors, partners and consultants in their unholy
and desperate gambit to achieve their condemnable efforts to bring NFF and its
leadership into public disrepute having failed in all their machinations to
take over its leadership.
We wish to assure that our legal team is fully engaged with
this matter in order to defeat these baseless and politically motivated attack
on the NFF and its leadership. We are confident that at the end of the day the
truth will prevail, this mission of destruction will fail and Nigeria football
will triumph over this conspiracy.
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