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Missing NFF money: How much? -NFF: $200,000; Ekeji: $236,000; Staff: $400,000

June 1, 2009

Image removed.Exactly what kind of man is FIFA and CAF kingpin, Amos Adamu, and how have he and his protégées flooded the NFF with so many relatives and friends? Nigerians may be about to find out, as the haunt for hundreds of thousands of dollars at the NFF continues. 


Today, it can be said that he is not a happy man. Adamu is furious that the men he installed in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as Chairman, Scribe or board members are failing to protect his supreme interest.  Among others, they could not recently protect his kinsmen that were arrested and detained in connection with missing money at the Federation offices.

The prime suspect in the crime is Dayo Enebi Achor, who is the secretary of the Super Eagles.  Dayo is Adamu’s nephew, the son of his elder sister Mrs. Achor, whose husband Mr. Achor, is from Kogi State.

As the Eagles scribe, Dayo collected the money meant for the Eagles South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifier match against Mozambique from John Adelowo, a level 12 officer who is a cashier with the NFF.

Adelowo, by the way, is the younger brother of Amos Adamu’s wife popularly called Iya Iyabo.  Both Iya Iyabo and Amos Adamu are actually from Ogbomosho, Oyo State. His real name is Babatunde Aremu. His father, who moved to Zuru, Kebbi State, at a very early age, was for a long time the head of Zuru Transport Workers Association.  He later became the Oba of the Yoruba Community in Zuru. The older Aremu was also very close to the then Emir of Zuru, who nicknamed him “Adamu”.

This explains Adamu’s Zuru “origin”. This dual “state of origin” has worked well for Adamu.  For example, when he was having problems with Shola Rhodes at the NSC, he quickly contacted fellow Zuru native, General Ishaya Bamaiyi, and told the army chief of his Yoruba “Berebe” irritants.

Bamayi took Adamu to General Sanni Abacha.  History reminds us how quickly Rhodes became history, and Adamu regained his job at the NSC.  Similarly, when he was having problem with the late Sports Minister, Isaiah Mark Aku, in 2001, it was time to exploit his Yoruba origin. Adamu met Olusegun Obasanjo, and declared that the reason Aku was giving problems was because he is a Yoruba man and that like OBJ; he is also called Baba Iyabo.

With his civil service career about to end, Adamu is now more open about his Yoruba origin.  He has taken chieftaincy titles in Isolo, Lagos, and Ogbomosho, and he is also romancing Oyo Governor, another Ogbomosho man with questionable credentials. Adamu hopes to represent Oyo state in the senate in the nearest future. 

But the present is getting very interesting.  The NFF claimed that Dayo collected $200, 000 from Adelowo, but Patrick Ekeji, the Director General National Sports Commission (NSC) told the world that the missing amount was $236,000 ($36,000 more than the NSC had announced).  The NFF did not contest Ekeji’s claim.

But now, angry staff of the NFF are saying the missing money is neither 200,000 nor $236,000, but a whopping and more bewildering $400,000.

Understandably, Adamu is upset.  Sanni Abdulahi Lulu, the NFF President and Bolaji Ojo-Oba, the federation scribe, both men he put in office, could not protect his relatives in “his” ministry.
But Lulu and Ojo-Oba men were also part of the fraud. The NFF President has so far employed 25 men from his Igalla tribe since he assumed office.  Among them are Rajan Zaka, Yahaya Adamu, Ahemd Yusuf and Abutu Joseph--all of the Accounts Department.
Maintenance officer Lukman Ajibaye, who many are insinuating as having actually broken the safe, was actually brought from Ibadan by Ojo-Oba.

Ajibaye is said to have a history of safe-breaking at the NFF. He was said to have made similar attempts at Lulu’s house, but to have been caught in the act by Lulu himself.  But inspite of the involvement of his kinsmen whom his puppets could not save, Adamu still believes that Lulu and Ojo-Oba ought to have swept the matter under the carpet in gratitude to him.

When our correspondent called Adamu on the matter, especially the involvement of his relatives, Dayo and Adelowo, Adamu expressed shocked that the duo could be traced to him.
When asked to comment, Adamu said, ‘‘This the age of 4-1-9, I cannot talk to you unless we see face to face.’’

Sahararepoters investigations have revealed new twists in the incident.  First, it has been revealed that the money was not from the Presidency or the Ministry of sports but rather from FIFA grants allocated to all participating countries in World Cup qualifiers.  This was said to have informed the action taken by the Ministry to ask the panel it set up recently to determine, among other things, the source of the funds.  It is said that it is only in Nigeria that the people are kept in the dark as to FIFA and other foreign grants and sponsorship packages their federations receive.


But apart from the involvement of kinsmen of top football in the scandal, the staff of the NFF believe the missing amount is bigger than what the federation is claiming.  Insider sources in the Glass House had revealed that the money actually stolen was 400,000 dollars.
According to statements offered by one of Lulu’s kinsmen to the police, he was at the office with his colleague with the money and they locked the sum in a cabinet safe in their office on the second floor of the Federation.  But then, while they were on their way downstairs, his colleague suddenly exclaimed he had forgotten some of his personal effects upstairs and dashed back to the office to retrieve them.  He said his colleague came back minutes later and they both headed out of the office.  According to him, he waited for his colleague at the security post on the ground floor lobby of the office complex during this time.

Informed sources revealed that the FIFA – ban story by the NFF was to scare away the Ministry from “interfering” in their affairs.  This, they said, was because the Ministry’s scrutiny might result in unpleasant revelations in the board’s activities.  Insiders also claimed that the ministry wants use this incident as an opportunity to assert its authority, and remove all the structures put in place by CAF/FIFA Executive member, Adamu.  

Ojo-Oba was only said to have survived a deployment to the ministry after the intervention of a powerful man in the office of the Head of Service in Abuja about a week before the incident.
Since inception, the Lulu-Led board has not made public the huge sum of money it has received from FIFA or other sources. 

 

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