7 August 2008
Lagos — Fanny Amun, a former acting secretary general of the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF), has been cautioned to avoid making remarks capable of pulling the beautiful game backward in the country.
"As a former scribe of the NFF his he should rather promote development of the game and not settle scores with his presumed enemies," Dr Emmanuel Ikpeme, deputy secretary general, (Technical), of the NFF in his
reaction to Amun's recent allegation that the probe of the Nigerian League was a ploy by the Dr Amos Adamu, director general of the National Sports Commission (NSC), to sack the Nigerian Football League, said it was unfortunate that such allegation could come from someone who once ran the football house.
"It is indeed a shame and tragedy that Amun, a former coach and Secretary General of NFF could make such comment just because he is out to settle score with somebody.
At his level one would have expected Amun to address football issues objectively without betraying his deep seated hatred for some personalities either in the football house or the Sports Commission" Ikpeme said it was shocking that Amun came out to condemn the probe when virtually all the stake holders in the league are praising the exercise since it is a bold attempt at bringing sanity to the professional football, quering, "why should anybody have anything against anti-corruption initiative for Christ sake"?
The NFF's chieftain noted that it was ill-logical for Amun to allege that Adamu wanted to use the probe as an excuse to sack the NFL board, arguing that the NSC boss only a few days ago sat in a meeting with functionaries of NFL and NFF in Abuja.to seek ways of fostering unity between the two bodies.
"I understand that Amun must be nursing a deep frustration and would not miss any opportunity to cast aspersion on some body like Dr Adamu whom he now sees as a sworn enemy. But he should not allow his grudge to becloud his sense of good judgment. A lot of people, especially the youth, look up to him for informed opinions on issues. So he can not afford to continue to peddle animosity on the page of the newspaper in the name of commenting on football issues."
Ikpeme counseled
Dr Ikpeme said the probe will ultimately strengthen the league and not discredit it as Amun claimed, stressing that the Serie A has become stronger after the land mark probe
that saw some influential Itallian club sides relegated for corruption some seasons ago.
The NFF 'S chieftain also described as unfortunate Amun's claim that the idea to probe
the League was from Dr Adamu and not the Sports Minister, Barister Hassan Gimba.
" Is Amun suggesting that our minister is a dummy who must act on the promptings of his subordinate"? Ikpeme asked.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
