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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over the management of grants from Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 2015 to date.
Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Sports to undertake the probe of NFF account, within the period under review and report back to the House for further legislative actions.
The House also mandated the Committee to invite the leadership of NFF to appear before it with records of its activities, including receipts and disbursements, from 2015 to date.
Furthermore, the Green chamber urged the panel to take appropriate steps to enhance transparency and accountability in NFF, in order to restore national and international confidence in the sports body.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Adedayo Adesola and Nwaeke Uche, calling on the House to stop further alleged misuse of FIFA and CAF grants by the NFF.
Adesola, in the lead debate, informed the parliament that recently, former Super Eagles captain, Sunday Oliseh, accused the NFF of undermining the growth of football in the country, through alleged misappropriation of grants from FIFA and CAF.
According to him, Oliseh cited the handling of $1.0 Million NFF grant from FIFA to prepare the Super Eagles for the 2002 World Cup.
The lawmaker stated “ between 2015 and 2025, NFF allegedly received development funds in excess of USD 25 millions from FIFA and CAF with nothing tangible on ground to justify the huge capital inflow from these soccer bodies.
“In December 2016, FIFA sent an audit query over the mishandling of US$1.1 development grant to NFF and reported that US$802,000 lacked proper documentation; prompting Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung to order an independent audit and asked NFF to account for receipts and disbursements.”
Furthermore, he stated that “between 2018 and 2019, NFF officials faced public criticism and were subject of EFCC and ICPC probes and court actions tied to alleged mismanagement of various funds and sponsorship monies.”
Adesola explained that part of the money is $1.2 million, which NFF allegedly used to construct the Birnin Kebbi Stadium.
“A physical inspection of the Stadium in Birnin Kebbi as it is showed a substandard facility in terms of quality and quantity which cannot justify the sum of US$1.2million claimed to have spent on the project by the NFF, whereas Kenyan Football Federation used the same amount of grant to develop a standard and well-equipped facility,” he stated.
Therefore, the lawmaker argued that with another African Cup of Nations, in the offing, it is imperative to take decisive steps the halt further alleged misuse of public funds by the NFF.
