16102021 - Southeast Gov INEC top official in trouble over $4m bribe

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46 — SATURDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 16, 2021 T here is no doubt that the Nigerian basketball scene is witnessing about its most trying period at the moment. With an impending elective congress exactly two weeks from now, the Nigeria Basketball Federation has been plunged into a crisis that could make some victims in its wake as the issues are getting messier by the day. Following the protest by members of the female national basketball team, during which they accused the NBBF and the Ministry of Sports of owing them various sums of money meant for them as allowances, training grants and donations by some banks before the Olympics, a lot of Nigerians have been reacting. D’Tigress, as the female national basketball team is called, have won the FIBA Afrobasket championship for three consecutive times, it is generally agreed that the women deserved a better deal. Give D’Tigress their due – Nwachukwu Onyewuchi Nwachukwu, an editor with Lagos-based Sportinglife said, “It is absolutely shocking. These are women that have made us proud. They have won the continental title three times consecutively and four times overall, they deserve to be treated better. The ministry was just being diplomatic with the truth by saying the money was intact somewhere. If this money was ready, why not give it to them instead of allowing it snowball to this embarrassing level? “By the way, what do they mean by saying the money was intact? Was it meant to be kept intact or to be disbursed to them. The girls are very articulate. They are well read, as they grew up in the United States and can express their views independently. The best thing is for the ministry to pay these girls to save this country further embarrassment. Some people are already Yes they are being owed but not insinuating that because this is •Rohr any official money. Let me explain an election period, some people are using the girls to rubbish a particular candidate, which shows that they are parochial. For the NBBF, even though the funds were the prerogative of the ministry and the NBBF did not have much to say on this, some officials of the NBBF have sympathy for the minister. There could be some kind of collusion and this are issues some of us have to unravel. If any member of the NBBF is found to be colluding with the ministry of sports to deprive these women of their monies, the person must be brought to book. Every time they owe players, officials feed fat on money that was supposed to be given to athletes. Apart from the money, the girls also complained of lack of respect for them despite their achievements, and this kills their morale. I agree with you completely. They are advocating that they have a liaison officer who will always table their matter before the federation. Some of these issues came up before the Olympics where, after comparing the way their contemporaries from other countries were being accorded 5-star treatment and how they were being treated the NBBF, they realised they were not being treated well. It is natural that if an athlete of another country that is not as talented as you are is enjoying more respect from her country you won’t like it. They are not asking for too much. They are international stars that have brought us glory. Give them their due. Besides, the girls were also accusing the NBBF President of not visiting them at their Olympic camp in the US even when he was in the States to see the male team. When you have children, you always have a soft spot for the girls because of their vulnerability; you don’t want hurt them. If actually the NBBF President visited the men’s team without seeing the women, then it’s bad. The girls will feel rejected and dejected. Between the girls and the male team, who have achieved more? They have brought us more glory than the men. So why can’t we accord them the respect they deserve? Colonel Sam Ahmedu (rtd): D’Tigress ‘ve never been neglected Sam Ahmedu Ahmedu, proprietor of Dodan Warriors Basketball Club and President FIBA Africa Zone 3 is also a board member (International Representative) of the Nigeria Basketball Federation. He spoke with Sports Vanguard. Is it true these girls are being owed? to you the manner of the indebtedness. There are three tiers of debts they are being owed The first id the President’s personal promise to the individual players; I will give you $1000, I will give you this, I will give you that. That was when they did well at the World Cup in 2018. When they came back from the World Cup, the Ministry never released money to cover the money he(the President or the federation) spent to go to the World Cup, Nations Cup. So the money he would have used to fulfill the promises he made to them was being held back until it dovetailed into 2019, the girls went to Afrobasket in Senegal, the President had to look for money to fund this new one again. Luckily, the girls won. Again, he made promises, saying, “I owed you $1000 each, I am going to pay you another one thousand. That money added up to $73,000 . If you look at this, the federation is not owing them. It is only a promise made to them by the President. I know some people would say, a promise is a debt. but if you don’t have money to pay, will you kill yourself. I remember in 2019, the ministry asked the President to compute all the money he has spent and submit, which he did. But he has not been refunded all the money he spent. He was paid about half. You know how government things work. They pay in peace meal. The second tier of money they claim was being owed, they said was training grant. The minister has come up to say no one was being owed training grant. By the way, the federation does not pay training grant. Training grant is paid by the Ministry of Sports in conjunction with the Nigeria Olympic Committee, and not the federation. Third one is the $230,000 donation by some banks. Two of the banks donated $100,000 each. One to the men’s team and the other to the women’s team. The third bank donated $30,000 for the two teams. The money did not go to the federation. It was the ministry that went to lobby for this money through the ‘Adopt an Athlete’ initiative. Some athletes got $10,000, some $15,000 depending on who was sponsoring you. So this money was not even given to the minister at hand. It went straight to the Excro account with the Central Bank. Those who paid the money paid directly to NBBF domiciliary account. However, the NBBF does not have physical control of that account. That account is controlled by the Ministry of Sports. If your money is there it is for a specific purpose. For the Ministry to pay those athletes the money, the President and the secretary would have to write a memo to the Ministry of Sports, then the Minister would approve, after that m the President of the federation and the accountant, who is from the ministry will then go and bring the money. For the girls now to get that money, the CBN would have to wire that money to the US, Spain or wherever. During the Olympics, the Minister said to the President, ‘look, this money for your players, we cannot give it to the federation. Give us your players’ account details so we can transfer the money to them. There was an argument on whether the coaches too can benefit. That suggestion was dismissed because, according to the minister, it is from the ‘adopt an athlete’ initiative and coaches are not athletes. So far, only the girls have sent their account details but the boys don’t want to. They are NBA players and are afraid their account could be hacked if they send their details. The only option left for the men is to hand the money to the General Manager of the team, who unfortunately, is away to the US. The Ministry has written to the Central Bank to commence payment for the girls, but the men would have to wait. Apart from the money owed them, the girls are also saying they are not given respect due to them. For instance, they said during the build up to the Olympics, the NBBF President did not visit them in the US, even though he went to see the men who were also camping in the US. They are feeling bad about that. The girls cannot say so because I was with them. Let me tell you. The Cameroon they went to for the Afrobasket, it was the President that raised money for them to participate When the President wrote to the ministry asking for funds for their participation in the Afrobasket, the ministry said they did not have money. They said all the money Outrage ove unpaid allow Stanley Gumut: Pay them D’Tigress ‘ve never been neg D’Tigress reject part-payme had been spent for the Olympics and the Afrobasket was not budgeted for and that the President should go and look for money if they wanted the team to go to Cameroon. The President sourced the money, about 130,000 dollars or so. Their allowances were paid, their feeding, accommodation and flight tickets were all paid and they did well and won. The President wanted to go and he tested positive for Covid-19, so the Vice President, Babs went. If the Super Eagles are playing and the Vice President of the NFF is there would the players say Pinnick was not there? One of the girls said they want to thank the Nigerian Ambassador to Cameroon who took care of them. How did they know the Ambassador if the federation did not take them there? On the American trip, let me tell you what happened. The male team were camped in Las Vegas while the women were in Atlanta. I was with them there. So the men were to play a game in Las Vegas on a Saturday. The President was travelling to Atlanta via Las Vega. By his flight schedule, he was to spend like 2 hours in Atlanta. So they expected him to get to Atlanta, go to their camp before coming back to catch his plane to Las Vegas. It was established that the girls were going to come to Las Vegas abd he would meet them there. When they met in Las Vegas, he spoke with them and thanked them for what they were doing. He explained to them why the money he was owing them had not been paid. The former GM of the team who resigned is not happy so she is firing the, up. Stanley Gumut: Pay them Former captain of Mark Men-
SATURDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 16, 2021 — 47 D’Tigress ances tors of Abuja and Nigeria international was recently elected as the players’ representative on the board of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Stanley Gumut said the NBBF and the Sports Ministry have no excuse to have kept quiet over the monies owed the female national Basketball team members. He said, “This thing has gone viral and everybody is aware of it. It is unfortunate that these girls who have worked hard and brought glory to this country are still being owed backlog of money. That is why we, the players, are calling for a change in the leadership of the NBBF. But the NBBF said they are not owing the players? I don’t have any fact about that, but if the players have come around with a video that they are being owed, I can’t doubt them because I don’t think they can just •Dare lected – Col Sam Ahmedu(rtd) nt wake up one day and start making up stories that they were being owed.. Some people are saying these girls are being remotely controlled to stage their protest. And that the whole thing was being politically motivated. Well, even if it is politically motivated, the basic fact is that they are being owed. There is no contention against that fact. They are being owed. But the Ministry is saying that the money is intact Peoples money should be given to them. Why should money meant for athletes be in the bank? Give it to them. You called for a change in the leadership of the NBBF. Is it because of this or there are other issues we do not know? •Kida This and many other issues, too many to mention here. For instance, if you take a look of the domestic basketball scene, nothing has happened in the last four years. If nothing is being done I believe nothing is going to change in another four years. Ministry’s reaction: In its reaction, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development issued a statement which was widely reported. In the statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ismaila Abubakar reads in part, “The Ministry wishes to make the following clarifications : 1.The $230,000 Dollars donated to the Basketball teams by the Banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the Ministry is intact in the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 2.That only the 12 female Team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers. The Ministry waited for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied so that the processing of payments can be one off as requested by the CBN. 3.The Ministry has requested the CBN to commence the processing of the payment to the Female Basketball Players immediately. The Male will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied. 4. Ministry wishes to state further that all outstanding - Olympics and Paralympics Games allowances and bonuses are being processed and only slowed down by funds availability. Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance has been fully furnished with details of the outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) and efforts are being made to secure the release. Protest politically motivated Babs Ogubade, Vice President of the outgoing NBBF board forwarded this post to a WhatsApp platform. “I have tried to follow this story since the girls came out with it. I have listened to them, read the ministry’s statement and also had cause to speak with NBBF leadership. I tried to speak to the girls but have been told that for now although only the captain Adaora is authorized to speak, she has asked for a day or two before going on record. However, based on what I have heard so far, what I can say is that all is not as it seems. I deal in facts, and as much as possible, I try to speak to as many people involved and scour for as much information as I can find to arrive at a working theory. From what I gather so far, it appears that the ladies have woven some fact with fiction and are running with a story that tugs at our heartstrings 1: Yes, the ladies are owed money and there has been no denial of that from the NBBF that I have seen. If anyone has seen anywhere that Kida said they were not owed, I would like to see it. 2. No NBBF leadership showed up for them, especially in Cameroon. That is not true. VP Babs Ogunade was with the team in Cameroon. That is Kida’s no 2. And Col Sam has almost always travelled with the team. If two board members, one of them the VP is with you, how is that not leadership 3. Their monies have not been paid. True. and that needs to be sorted out ASAP. It is totally and completely unfair to not have monies dating back to 2017/2018 paid up. I have heard the reasons from the NBBF, and while they are valid and it appears clear that this is not their fault (same reason why the men’s football team did not get their Afcon 2019 bonuses till 2021), I believe that workarounds can be found to make these things happen. Even if it is to pay a part. But the ministry has also explained (with proof) that the $230 000 is in the bank and ready to be paid. 4. Kida did not show up in Cameroon. As I understand it, Kida tested positive for COVID and could not travel and the team were made aware of the situation. This is what I have been told by multiple NBBF officials, including Ogunade who said he personally informed the girls in Cameroon about Kida’s positive test. It is part of why I really wanted to speak to Elonu, to ask her if indeed the team were told about this. If she says they were not told, that means one party is lying. And if. they were, then why still complain about it? 5. And of course we all know that the 36-hour flight to Tokyo was not on the NBBF but on the NOC and by extension, the ministry These are just a few of the many pickups from my conversations and the available public information. And then there is the political angle. But I will not go into that, for the simple reason that most of it is conjecture. But after all of these, if the facts that I know and can find from publicly available information have been so badly misrepresented by these ladies, it calls to question the motivations. One thing we cannot deny is that this agitation has hastened the processing of their payment, and they will be paid soon. Which is good news from any where one may stand. However, one will find it hard to trust any information thhat comes from them after so much misrepresentation I support the protest Reacting to Babs’ post a contributor wrote “If this girls are owed even N1, they are within their rights to complain. Whether woven in with fiction or not. Whether politically motivated or not, this situation is a recurring decimal in our sports and national lives. I support this protest 100%. Pay them their money as AT WHEN DUE. If that had happened would they protest ? I doubt it? anyone looking to put any additional. Spin on such a bad situation does not Have the interest of Nigeria at heart and is a big part of our problem as a country !” D’Tigress reject partpayment After winning their third consecutive AfroBasket title, D’Tigress players in a video called out the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) over about N87m in bonuses and allowances owed to them and also the unfair treatment they were subjected to. That video has triggered some responses from both the NBBF and the Ministry. But in another statement, the players claim that they have been offered a part of the outstanding payments from the 2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup. They, however, declined to insist that the Ministry and NBBF must meet all their demands. “We thank the Ministry for their swift response but respectfully decline part payment of monies owed to every member of the D’Tigress since 2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup,” the players said in a statement. “We are a team and will leave no one behind.” The D’Tigress’ demands include holding the former president of the NBBF responsible for the unfair treatment they have received and for his alleged incompetence. The players are also demanding to appear before President Muhammadu Buhari and get their presidential handshake after their latest achievement. Total amount owed, improve travel conditions and hiring a General Manager, are part of non-negotiables. “We are open to a seat down conversation at the appropriate time, all communications be directed to our captain Adaora Elonu,” part of the statement also read. Following the protest from the D’Tigress, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development denied the allegations that their officials diverted the monies meant for the basketball squad. The Ministry claimed that they still have donations by the banks to the D’Tigress in the NBBF’s domiciliary account.
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16102021 - Southeast Gov INEC top official in trouble over $4m bribe

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