EFCC freezes football federation’s accounts

By Ifeanyi Ibeh


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.