Super Falcons Coach Kadiri Ikhana yesterday in Abuja resigned his position as head coach of the Nigerian senior women football team, the Super Falcons.

Ikhana, who resigned from his service yesterday on his return from the AWC, said though the target set for him in his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation was met at the tournament, he decided to resign for his failure to meet his personal target of lifting the trophy.

The Falcons had failed to defend the title they had won in South Africa in 2010 for the sixth time since 1998, after losing 0-1 to South Africa on Nov. 8 and again losing to Cameroon in the championship's third-place match on Sunday.

Ikhana said he resigned on personal grounds, even though the target set for him in his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was achieved at the tourney.

"I resigned over my failure to meet my personal target of lifting the trophy," he said.

While expressing his apology to the nation over the team's performance, the coach said he accepted full responsibility for the result.

Ikhana was mandated in his contract signed on April 1, 2012, to among other things, lead the team to the 2012 AWC and ensure the team played in at least the semi-finals of the competition.

The coach said he had the personal desire of returning the trophy to Nigeria from the championship, noting: "this failure informed my decision to quit the stage".

Kadiri, however, said he would continue to support the development programme of the NFF as a Nigerian as he believed that the nation had the potential to take the centre stage in world football.

He pointed out that his resignation was a notice of resignation to the NFF in accordance with the contract agreement between the two parties.