Misappropriation of Funds: How Pinnick Allegedly Diverts N6.72 bn Sponsors Funds

Gianni Infantino FIFA President…working under the influence of ‘gifts’ Pinnick allegedly diverts N6.72bn sponsors funds. *Details of the sleaze in the Glass House *Many sponsors funds undisclosed worth over N10bn *Why FIFA bosses are protecting Pinnick By Olajide Fashikun We can reveal to you that at the end of the outgoing 2017/2018 football season which should make the fourth year of the Amaju Pinnick board, that sponsors funds worth N6.72billion (gross but not net) may have suffered some form of misapplication by the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). This is given that nobody else in the federation knows what sports kit manufacturers, Nike paid the organisation especially with the success of selling over 3million replica during the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, each of the jersey put on sale went for £41. Logic is, if 3million jersies were reportedly sold, then, a gross of £120m would have been made. If computed at the exchange rate of N460, that would amount to N5.52billion. As at the last count, the sum of public monies kept in private accounts being sponsors funds include the following: 1. Monies that passed through the NFF Accounts include Nigeria Breweries N450m, Emzor Pharmaceuticals N40m, Zenith Bank N150m. In all, sponsors paid in the current season a total of N640m to the NFF. 2. Monies in the accounts of Financial Derivatives include Aiteo Group N240m and $600,000. For the Aiteo FA Cup N500m was paid. Peak Milk N40m, Pay Porte N80m, Big Bull N100m, Ixbet $150,000 while Simba paid N20m, Wapic Insurance N100m, Coca-Cola $800,000 and TomTom N60m. Nobody in the federation knows how much has been collected from the Nike deal which was signed singlehandedly by the then President, Amaju Pinnick. Meanwhile, there are sponsors whose amount of monies they paid did not reflect anywhere in the official account books of the NFF which include Globacom, NDDC, TGI Limited, Guinnes Plc., SuperSport, FIFA, CAF, Brila Sports, IGI Insurance. Insider sources claim that First Derivatives Company Lited were brought on board to circumvent the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to warehouse all revenues accruing to the NFF. “Monies deposited into their account does not get to the NFF.” We can assert that private individuals pay monies and donations to the First Derivatives accounts. For instance, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah whose company pays the salaries of Gernot Rohr paid over $500,000 to the account. Mediterrenian Sports Limited: A third leg of the fraud in the house of football is a company named as Mediterrenian Sports Limited belonging to the Chairman of the League Management Company Limited, Mallam Shehu Dikko who doubles as the Second Vice President of the NFF. Dikko is also the chairman of the Sponsorship and Marketing sub committee of the NFF. This was an appointment that is deliberately and strategically placed to advantage in view of the revelations that have emerged thus far. As at 21st March 2018 some of the documents submitted by the former NFF Technical Director, James Peters in a well documented petition addressed to the EFCC is the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) page which revealed that Shehu Dikko is a director of Mediterrenian Sports Limited. Systemic stealing and misappropriation : A forensic audit reportedly done some years back showed double budgeting especially when the Super Eagles play their matches. That is why the NFF takes such matches around states. While the host pays to host the national team, the same amount of monies are also claimed from the Federal Government, owners of the national teams. This happens during World Cup qualifiers and African Nations Cup qualifiers for the senior national teams. This is also the case when cadet teams are plying their trades in preparation for World Cup or regional qualifiers in their platforms. To worsen matters, cadet national teams players and officials are not paid a farthing as either allowances and bonuses. For instance, coaches amongst them devise means of allowing agents who have athletes in camp to tip them to ensure such athletes have playing time. This is made worse because such coaches if they are not sports council staffers do not get any pay anywhere to maintain themselves and family back at home yet they are looked at from the prime position of being ‘national team coaches.’ National Assembly : There are unsubstantiated allegations that some members of the Sports Committees of the National Assembly enjoy various perks and supports like trips to championships abroad. They are reportedly given these privileges so that they would facilitate the passage of the NFF Bill so as to subvert the matter in court with the Ambassador Chris Giwa faction. Had the Bill been passed, it would have been in the law to protect them against regular government requests for accountability of funds in their accounts. Meanwhile, had no time has the internal auditor of the NFF been allowed to audit its books. That is why they had to bring a world-class auditor whose name was meant to help them feel as good. EFCC compromise in the prosecution: There are allegations that a senior legal personnel whose firm has retainership with the NFF under Pinnick is also a prosecutor with the EFCC may have been helping internally to protect his clients from the litany of petitions that had been sent to the agency. Our source insist that the petition from coach James Peters for instance suffered diplomatic delay when the agency rather than commence her petition decided to send it to the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for investigation. It was a ploy designed to buy more time moreso that the petition was gaining traction when the Supreme Court judgement in favour of Giwa was hitting the polity. It would be recalled that the same fate followed the petition against the same NFF in 2010 until the petitioner had to do a press conference in Abuja pointedly accusing the then Executive Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri and within 24 hours, the matter was charged to court. The prosecution turned to persecution until it was discharged by the Court of Appeal in 2018! FIFA complicity : President of the Federation International of Football Associations (FIFA), Giovanni Infantino, is very close to Pinnick. The Nigerian helped him to send out the oligarchs of African football. In the last two years alone, Infantino had visited Nigeria 10 times. Most of the visits had been timed to send subtle threats against the courts during the fight with Giwa. During the World Cup in Russia, Infantino ‘helped’ his friend to send jitters down the spine of ‘their enemies’ but it seems that did not gel. With the so-called enemies having justice on their side and banking on the avowed declaration of the Muhammadu Buhari administration moreso, the minister and Vice President (a Professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria) are trained lawyers. It is expected to see how they will not protect the judiciary at the anvil of webbed propaganda and protection of personal interests that has kept the nation’s football development at the nadir. To top the matter, a deadline of 20 th August was given in a new FIFA letter with a similar threat of ban on Ghana. This is meant to scare the Nigerian government into forcing a fait accompli on the judgement of the Supreme Court. This is after the illegal employment of the nation’s secret service, who were mandated by the Supreme Court, to implement the Order of court. Rather, the DSS has stood firmly against the court Order. Footballers led by Harrison Jalla and Rumson Baribote led a protest against the siege on the Glass House. To subtly add more pressure, proponents of the Pinnick camp sold a massive fake news, using a fake journalist and title to sell a well scripted dummy that he (Pinnick) had a breakfast meeting with the Acting President on Wednesday where he had been given the nod to keep managing the NFF. However, Nigerians in different fora who have seen through all the lies and propaganda have been awaiting the FIFA ban. A listener in Abuja said, “if we know when the ban will arrive, we shall mobilise one million Nigerians to welcome it. When we were not under ban, we were not doing well then why can’t we take the ban and use the opportunity to fix the sport?” Ayo Ibidamitan, an architect, on the same Radio programme sought for the much needed ban. “The FIFA letter is targeted at the Giwa Congress and to stall the Elders’ reconciliation committee under former Governor Abdulmumini Aminu. We want the ban. Let’s take it, re-do the NFF statute, start fresh elections from local government to the national and be in good standing. Fear of FIFA ban should not force us to take wrong decisions that had repeatedly been taken since 2006.”