NFF president, Pinnick facing fresh allegations of financial mismanagement

The Ondo State FA chairman, Otunba Dele Ajayi, has accused Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick, of financial mismanagement.

Recently, reports had it that Pinnick was arrested, placed on a travel ban and set to be prosecuted by president Muhammadu Buhari over cases of financial misconduct.

The NFF boss debunked the claims.

However, in a new twist, Ajayi who is a former NFF member, has insisted that the allegations are true.

“There is a lot of mismanagement in the Nigeria Football Federation under Amaju Pinnick and I can tell you that for more than three years, there was no approval.

“The board members were not aware of all the funds flying about, you can only talk of three or four people who are aware of those funds, there is no transparency.

“There is nothing like executive in the books of the NFF. When you receive money, you take it to the board and the board must approve. When I got there as chairman of finance with experience during the civil service years, everybody must have an approving limit.

“When we were sworn-in, I was made the chairman of finance but when I don’t want them to do otherwise, they had to replace me but now I’m being vindicated,” Ajayi told Orange FM in an interview.

After an audit on the NFF account by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the leadership of the NFF was cleared of financial deceit by FIFA, but Otunba Ajayi feels otherwise.

“The audit firm [Price Water] will be rubbished one of these days because the world will soon know what they have done in Nigeria. They cook books for them because when you look at it, FIFA cannot tell us what we are doing here.

“When [Pinnick] collected 1.5billion naira from the government and was telling us he did not collect a dime, where did the money go to? [NFF] collected three million dollars from FIFA which did not reach the account of the NFF. They collected one million dollars from CAF without board members being aware of such money, even sponsorships.

“Even the Aiteo Cup, referees who officiated the tournament two years ago have not been paid and they collected billions from the sponsors, how can they be cleared?

“The minister keeps saying it that a panel set up by the federal government has indicted somebody with mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. When the case gets to court you know what will happen with FIFA.

“There are different ways to deal with financial irregularities, if the NFF are receiving money alone from FIFA then they have the rights to spend it the way they want and explain to FIFA but when they collect money from the federal government and they don’t have any explanation to that, are we saying that the government has no right to ask for the appropriation because they are affiliated to FIFA?

“The last friendly match Nigeria played in Port Harcourt, Rivers state government gave them 250,000 dollars cash and a hundred million. Board members were not even given money for flight, we have to sponsor ourselves and when we asked [Pinnick], he said the money has finished.

“We have various documents to prove this misappropriation. The truth will prevail, all of us will know the truth about these things one day whether the government have the right to probe them or not. You should listen to the minister of sports, he is the one releasing funds to them.

“How can we say we went to Russia, the senate through its president gave you 200 million naira, some state governments like Lagos, Rivers, Delta gave you 100 million naira each and they were not declared at all. Is the money personal to them or the organisation?” he added.