$25,000 "Gift": Minority Gives Gov't Ultimatum

THE Minority in Parliament has given the government up to the end of this month to set up an independent public inquiry into the acceptance of $25,000 by the Black Stars contingent to Port Harcourt after the team’s defeat by Nigeria’s Super Eagles in a World Cup qualifying match last July.

The Minority said it would “invoke all legal and constitutional instruments at its disposal to have the matter investigated and dealt with,” if nothing is done after the November 30 deadline.

A statement issued in Parliament House yesterday and signed by the Minority Spokesman on Youth and Sports, Mr Abugah Pele, who is also the MP for Chiana-Paga constituency, reiterated the minority’s call on government to establish the full facts of the incident.

It described as “bogus and fraudulent” a recent decision by the Executive Council of the GFA, absolving the Chairman of the GFA, Mr Ben Koufie, of any wrongdoing in respect of the acceptance of the amount.

The statement said the action of the GFA Executive Council amounted to window-dressing and “an amateurish attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the public”.

“Any attempt to whitewash the unethical actions of the FA Chairman and the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports with a quack decision of the FA Executive Council will make the President’s policy of zero tolerance for corruption meaningless,” the Minority observed.

The statement stressed that “selective application of the zero tolerance policy based on the person involved would render the policy useless and just a mere slogan. Zero tolerance must not apply to Mallam Isa alone and persons who do not belong to the NPP”.

The statement expressed regret at the “indiscretion of the former SWAG President, who, in the past, had carried himself as a crusader against corruption, but who suddenly, in the present circumstance, is going to any lengths to try to justify the acceptance of the monetary inducement or ‘black bag’ as no big deal.”