EFCC freezes football federation’s accounts

EFCC
freezes football federation’s
accounts

The Nigeria
Football Federation may not be as impoverished as some of its board
members will want Nigerians to believe going by the large sums
uncovered in some of the federation’s accounts that have now been
frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).

The anti-graft has
been beaming its searchlight on the NFF since the conclusion of the
2010 World Cup and just over a fortnight ago invited the Federation’s
impeached president Sani Lulu along with Amanze Uchegbulam and Taiwo
Ogunjobi to their office in Abuja as part of ongoing investigations
into alleged acts of financial impropriety by some officials.

The trio were on
Monday back at the office of the EFCC, on a day it emerged that the NFF
had in its three separate accounts an accumulated sum of over one
billion naira which has now been frozen by the anti-graft agency.

While one of the
accounts had around one hundred and forty-four million naira deposited
in it, the other two had two million US dollars and six million US
dollars respectively, which going by the present exchange rate of the
naira to the US dollar translates to around N900 million.

EFCC spokesman,
Femi Babafemi, who confirmed that the accounts had been frozen, said,
“That action (freezing of the NFF accounts) had to be taken because of
the nature of the ongoing investigations”.

He also said other
than the trio of Lulu, Uchegbulam and Ogunjobi, another key official of
the NFF was, also on Monday, at the office of the EFCC.

Ojo-Oba on the way out

The official in
question was the secretary general of the NFF Bolaji Ojo-Oba who has
been ordered to embark on compulsory leave by the NFF’s executive
committee led by Aminu Maigari who has himself been ordered to report
to the EFCC’s office on today as part of the anti-graft agency’s
ongoing investigations.

The decision by the
NFF’s executive committee regarding Ojo-Oba was taken because,
according to Maigari, Ojo-Oba had not embarked on any official leave
since assuming the position of NFF scribe four years ago.

In addition to
Ojo-Oba’s accumulated leave, the move was taken as part of the
restructuring exercise going on within the NFF which now sees Musa
Ahmadu assuming the role of acting secretary of the football house
pending the end of Ojo-Oba’s leave. Ahmadu was, until now, the NFF’s
secretary in charge of general services.

Also yesterday, the
NFF executive committee slammed an indefinite suspension on its head of
media Ademola Olajire owing to the non-rendition of the Nigerian
national anthem during last Saturday’s African Youth Championship
qualifier between the Flying Eagles and Guinea

Sunday Okhai, the
head of the NFF’s referees’ unit, as well as the federation’s head of
administration, Saidat Ogunjobi were also placed on suspension.

Robinson Okosun was
Monday named as Olajire’s replacement while no replacements have been
named for the positions vacated by Okhai and Ogunjobi.

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