Lagos — Outrage! That is what has in the last couple of days trailed the decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to slam a four-year Nations Cup ban on Togo alongside a $50,000 fine after the West African country pulled out of the just concluded Angola 2010 Nations Cup.

Togo decided to withdraw from the African soccer fiesta after the national soccer team, the Hawks were attacked by Cabinda rebels- an incident that claimed the lives of three members of the team.

Since CAF announced the decision to ban Togo, virtually every follower of the game has condemned it.

Vocal football administrator, Alhaji Shaibu Gara-Gombe, was close to tears when he spoke exclusively to Saturday Champion Sports on the Togo saga early this week.

Gara-Gombe, a former chairman of Gombe State FA, said he was taken aback by the CAF decision, describing it as not only unjust and callous, but unacceptable.

Gara-Gombe, who said he is surprised world soccer governing body, FIFA, has not stepped in to call CAF to order, stated that what Togo deserves is compensation and not any further punishment.

"I am surprised Alhaji Issa Hayatou and his men came out to ban Togo rather than say how they would be compensated after the painful attack in Cabinda that claimed three precious lives. What has CAF done in the area of insuring players and officials coming to their competition? If they had any form of insurance cover, by now we should be talking about compensation for Togo. It's a shame that what is being discussed now is a ban and a fine on Togo."

Gara-Gombe stressed that no responsible government would fold its arms while its citizens are being slaughtered in a foreign land.

"Any other government would have done what the Togolese authorities did. CAF should respect the sovereignty of countries. Togo went to Angola to play football and not to fight war. Since they were attacked by rebels, the least any responsible government would have done is to pull out. What happened in Angola was not a case of undue government interference in sports. It was a case of a government taking a bold step to protect its citizens. By banning Togo, Hayatou and his men are only adding salt to injury. They should revert that decision without any further delay and apologise to Togo," he said.

CAF, it would he noted hinged its decision to ban Togo on her Article 47 which prescribes a ban for any country that withdraws abruptly from a major competition.

But just like Gara-Gombe, the African Union (AU) commission on sports yesterday in a release, faulted CAF, insisting that the African soccer governing body shouldn't have invoked that article in the case of Togo. A member of the Commission Dr. Patrick Ekeji, who is the Director General of National Sports Commission (NSC), pointed out that CAF's Article 47 did not envisage that rebels could attack a national team as they did to Togo in Angola.