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Officials of The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Enugu have taken over the
investigation of corruption charges levelled against the Nigeria
Premier League chairman, Davidson Owumi.

Mr. Owumi, who was
flown into Enugu Thursday, after initially been questioned in Abuja by
officials of the anti-graft body, is accused of misappropriating funds
while he was the chief executive officer of Enugu Rangers International
Football Club between 2002 and 2006. He was succeeded by Ray Nnaji, who
is believed to have sent the petition currently been acted on by the
EFCC.

Speaking to
NEXTSports on the latest development, Femi Babafemi, spokesman for
EFCC, revealed that the League boss is still in their custody and might
remain there, depending on the findings of the officials.

“Our men are
currently questioning him on the petitions we received that he used
fictitious companies to award contracts and also corruptly enriched
himself while in office. For now, he is still in our custody. But I
cannot say if he would have to remain with us,” he said.

Owumi defence

Though attempts at
getting across to Mr. Owumi proved abortive yesterday, the NPL boss was
on to a sports programme on City FM 105.1 Lagos, where he dismissed the
petitions against him. According to him, his record speaks well of him.

“The record is
there for all to see. We achieved what we achieved that time with the
leanest of allocations from the state government. The record after I
resigned is also there for all to see. Even with better funding, Ray
could not achieve anything as my successor,” Mr. Owumi told Sports
Flight.

The former Enugu Rangers chief executive officer said his invitation by the anti-graft agency was a routine invitation.

“Normally, if a mad
man on the streets writes a petition against someone, the EFCC must
respond and invite the person to come and give your own side of the
story,” he said.

Meanwhile, the
Nigeria Premier League season, originally meant to begin this weekend,
has been put off again. The shift, according to NPL officials, was
based on the dissolution of the all committees of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF), and not the arrest of its boss. The dissolution thus
affects the referees’ appointment committee, which is responsible for
the placement of match officials for Premier League games.

Incidentally, plans to pay the debt of N3.8 million to affected
referees of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) on Thursday by the
Nigeria Premier League (NPL) failed to take place due to the absence of
the referees’ body leadership.