Ibadan — Barely one year after the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup, some aggrieved members of the "Sub-Committee on Ceremonies" for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) have despatched a letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asking it to expedite action on their earlier petition, demanding immediate investigation of Mrs Ayo Omidiran, Chairman of the committee over alleged graft on her part.

In the original petition, copies of which were made available to journalists in Ibadan at the weekend, Mrs. Omidiran was accused of misappropriating the sum of about N89 million released by the federal government to the Sub-Committee on Ceremonies to organize the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Specifically, the committee chairman was accused of unilaterally disbursing the funds released for the committee without carrying along her members.

While urging the anti-graft agency to compel Mrs. Omidiran to appropriately account for the money released by the federal government to the Sub-Committee on Ceremonies, the aggrieved members in the petition signed by five of the 12-man committee, dated November 13, 2009, urged the anti-graft agency to compel Mrs. Omidiran to appropriately subject herself to accountability. The signatories to the petition included Alhaji Aminu Salihu Yakudima, Mr John Obobairibhojie, Dr. K.O. Omolawon, Mr Peter Enogieru and Alhaji Shafii Mohammed.

Copies of the petition which were made available to journalists in Ibadan were equally despatched to President Goodluck Jonathan; the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbona Onovo; the Director of State Security Services, the Sports Minister, as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), in which the peitioners urged them to arrest the ugly trend.

The signatories to the petition accused Mrs. Omidiran of allegedly denying them of their entitlements as committee members and that despite their complaints and petitions, the anti graft agencies have not brought the chairman to book, almost a year after.

In the petition entitled "Financial Crime in the Ceremonies Sub-Committee of Local Organizing Committee (LOC), FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria 2009", the petitioners complained that the former Sports Minister, Alhaji Mainasara Illo (then Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organizing Committee) allegedly withheld a sum of N38,900,000 from the installment released to Omidiran in October, 2009, "owing to the complaints of financial mismanagement raised by the members against the chairman".

They claimed that the committee, by its terms of reference, was supposed to approve all expenditures before withdrawals, but that Mrs. Omidiran only obliged the committee the knowledge of N6,030,000 for the project, while the rest of the total N89,460,000, was unilaterally disbursed by her.

They had therefore urged the EFCC and others mentioned above, "to expedite action on our complaint in furtherance of the Federal Government's determination to entrench accountability, transparency, and due process, as well as fight corruption in both public and private sectors, lest cover-up be insinuated".

However, Mr. Femi Babafemi, EFCC Media Spokesman, he did not know of the petition when contacted on phone.

He said: "I am not aware of such a petition at all. Maybe the matter does not fall within our purview and it had been referred to the appropriate quarters like the police, for investigation. Most people just submit their petitions without bothering to know where it should really be directed."