Super Falcons allowances: Reps accuse NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau of frustrating probe
The House of Representatives has accused the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau of frustrating the investigation into the allegations of non-payment of allowance and entitlement of the Nigeria Female football team popularly known as Super Falcons.
This allegation was made directly by the chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc committee investigating the faceoff between Supper Falcons and Officials of the NFF, Blessing Onu.
The NFF had recently been in the news over unpaid salaries and allowances when coach Randy Waldrum made some grievous allegations against the NFF, including a backlog of unpaid salaries.
In an interview conducted early in July, the coach said the NFF owed him 14 months’ salary until three weeks ago when the federation paid seven months.
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He also added that the NFF owed some players “per diem and bonuses” from two years ago.
Onu’s statement followed the refusal of the NFF president to honour the invitation by the Chairman of the ad hoc committee investigating the face-off.
It was gathered that Adams had asked the NFF president not to appear before the committee for reasons best known to him.
At the sitting of the ad hoc committee on Tuesday, the chairman, Onu, however, re-invited the NFF president over his failure to appear before the committee.
Re-inviting the NFF president, the chairman of the Ad hoc committee said the sitting of the committee was not to witch-hunt anyone but to discharge its functions in line with the mandate of the House.
Onuh who issued the notice, frowned at the NFF President’s deliberate refusal to honour the invitation of the Ad hoc committee.
Onuh said, “It’s obvious that the NFF president is frustrating this ad hoc committee from investigating the allegation levelled against it.”
According to her, the NFF president was supposed to appear before the ad hoc committee on August 17 but unfortunately, the reasons the NFF president gave were not as important as the work of this ad hoc committee.
She said, “Nigerians are interested, Nigerians are watching. The girls did extremely well and they made Nigerians proud, so we shouldn’t take this investigative hearing lightly.
“We gave an opportunity for the president of the NFF to appear before this Ad hoc Committee I will say invariably he is the one summoning us, he came up with an excuse that is not as important as what we have.
“The allowances and the dues that were supposed to be paid to the female footballers, the Super Falcons and he turned it down, what is more important is it for him to attend the FIFA Women Convention or to appear before this Committee?
“And even at that he had the effrontery to send his SA that he won’t be able to make it. It simply means he is taking us for granted; he is taking us for a ride and we will not tolerate it. We will not,” she noted.
Speaking earlier, the NFF Secretary General, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said that the NFF President could not attend the investigative hearing because of his ill-health.
The ad hoc committee however also walked out the Secretary-General and his team who came to represent the NFF president.
The House of Representatives had set up an ad hoc committee mandated to investigate the dispute between the Super Falcons and the NFF and propose necessary reforms to prevent the planned protest and boycott at the mundial as well as to prevent future occurrences. Punch
