Exclusive: FIBA Has Not Recognized Any Of The Two NBBF Boards

Exclusive: FIBA Has Not Recognized Any Of The Two NBBF Boards By Niyi Busari The World Basketball governing body, FIBA, has not recognized any of the two parallel Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) elections held in Abuja and Edo State, BSNSports.com.ng can authoritatively revealed. Igoche Mark was elected as the President of the Federation on Monday, January 31st in Abuja, the benue announced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for the elections. On the other hand, the incumbent president of NBBF, Engineer Musa Kida was re-elected unopposed in Benin, Edo State in another elections held on the same date. BSN Sports investigation revealed that both NBBF boards have written to FIBA informing her of their emergence as the recognised and legitimate boards, however, FIBA has failed to respond to either of them as there was no confirmation from neither the Ministry of Sports nor the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC). In this regards, FIBA failed to invite neither Kida-led board nor Igoche board to Serbia where Nigeria senior women's national basketball team, D'Tigress, picked the World Cup ticket after defeating France and Mali last week. Also, the Ministry of Sports remained silent on who is the recognised board among the two boards. A reliable source who is a senior staff of the Ministry and spoke on condition of anonymity because of pressure from bosses if name is revealed said, "There's reason why the Ministry of Sports has not written to FIBA on which board is recognised. Also, FIBA didn't invite any of the two boards to Sebia where Women's World Cup Qualifiers took place because they have not recognized any of them until the Ministry of Sports takes a decision. "Both Kida and Igoche Mark have written to FIBA each of them stating why they're the recognised board, but there was no response from FIBA in.that regard. FIBA instead communicate with the Secretariat of the NBBF who took charge of the world Cup qualifiers. Yes, Kida and his vice president, Babs Ogunade are on FIBA website as president and vice but that has been there since 2017 and has not been updated because of the reasons I stated earlier. " He concluded.