The Nigeria Football Federation on Saturday described as
outright falsehood, a news item in the media claiming that
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the President of NFF,
Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, should be prosecuted.
“The attention of the Nigeria Football Federation has been drawn
to a news item circulating in a section of the media saying a
directive has been issued by President Muhammadu Buhari that the
President of NFF, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick be prosecuted and that
Pinnick has also been issued with a travel ban.
“The report is completely unfounded and is only a product of the
writer’s imagination. The NFF President, who is also the 1st Vice
President of the Confederation of African Football, has not
received any such message from any of the agencies mentioned by the
writer and has also never been placed on travel ban.
“Mr. Pinnick was in Accra, Ghana on Friday, 4th January 2019 for
a meeting with NFF and CAF partners AITEO and returned to Nigeria
the same day. He has been going about his lawful official and
private activities unhindered. The NFF published its audited
account in two (2) major national newspapers (ThisDay and Daily
Trust) on Thursday, 20th December 2018 and in another major
newspaper (Vanguard) on Tuesday, 25th December 2018. Anyone
interested in the Federation’s financial transactions can refer to
those pages.
“All incomes into the NFF from the Federal Government, FIFA and
CAF from 2014 till now have been correctly recorded and reflected
in our accounts. The NFF received nothing like the N59 Billion that
the fake news reporters have been hawking. It is laughable.
“Before appointment into FIFA committees, Mr. Amaju and the two
Nigerians in there passed rigorous integrity and eligibility tests.
FIFA and CAF have not reported to anyone that their money is
missing, and both organizations have been doing auditing of monies
given to the NFF. Two years ago, FIFA handed the NFF a clean bill
of health on financial management. Our accounts are audited by the
same company that audits FIFA – PriceWaterHouse Coopers.
“Our lawyers will take up the matter of the fake news item with
the newspaper company that first published it in its online
edition. But we urge other media companies and outlets to be
painstaking in verification of their news items.
“We also urge our sponsors and partners, football stakeholders
in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large, and other media
institutions to disregard the said news report as its another
attempt by the mob against the NFF to tarnish the image of the
Federation and its leadership for whatever gains,” read the report
from the federation’s communications department.