By Jacob Ajom

The Nigeria Football Federation is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. For the umpteenth time, an anti graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is in the football house investigating a petition against top officials of NFF who have been accused of financial misappropriation.

This is not the first time Nigeria’s football ruling house has come under the searchlight of anti-graft agencies, but like a cat with nine lives, each time petitioners write, investigations would follow but the findings are never known. Life goes on as if nothing happened, in the first place.

In 2022, the BBC reported that the Nigerian anti-corruption agency, seized properties belonging to former officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) during a wide-ranging corruption probe in 2019. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) confirmed the seizure of the properties in a published advertisement in two national newspapers. “The Commission is of the opinion based on the aforementioned investigation that this immovable property owned by the official is excessive having regard to his present and past emoluments and all other circumstances,” the ICPC advertisement said about one of the properties seized.

One of the investigated former officials was the present day Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Shehu Dikko, then NFF vice-president who doubled as the former chairman of the defunct League Management Company.

Dikko hit back, with his legal representatives saying the allegations made against their client came with no evidence that he committed any crime.

In March 2020, the ICPC went to court to apply for the withdrawal of the case as they were unable to provide any evidence on the properties that they said were illegally acquired.

“Fundamentally, the fact is that my client own the properties long before he joined NFF in 2015,” Dikko’s counsel explained. He won.

Before that case under reference, in 2018 the EFCC arraigned three officials of the NFF for allegedly conspiring to steal money to the tune of $9.5m from the Federation’s account.

The money was part of the grant by the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, to the NFF for the development of football in Nigeria.

The defendants – Christopher Andekin, Rajan Zaka and Jafaru Fadanari Mamza were arraigned on a 5-count charge of fraud before Justice Peter O. Affem of the FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja.

Like many other cases before it, nobody knows what became of the case. Most often, the outcomes of such arraignments and trials remain a mystery. Hardly is anybody jailed because sometimes cases are withdrawn and are never conclusive. In some cases, the accused enter plea bargain to avoid criminal trial, the attendant media attention or publicity and its attendant negative effects.

“It was gathered that some NFF secretariat staff have benefited from the plea bargain option, in order to avoid public opprobrium.

Recent investigative report by insideglasshouse.com concluded that during the eight years of the last NFF administration, over 25 Billion Naira was allegedly stolen from the NFF coffers. But the former NFF President Amaju Pinnick has maintained that these investigations were merely a witch hunt and blackmail by persons that were opposed to his administration. He won. No evidence was found against them. They were therefore presumed innocent.

Last month, the Sports Stakeholders Forum in Nigeria petitioned President Bola Tinubu demanding a thorough investigation by the relevant agencies how 20 Billion Naira released by the Government for three major international tournaments was spent.

The petition also demanded that a probe be conducted on how FIFA and CAF grants paid to the NFF for a number of international competitions in the last two years were spent.

Penultimate week, officials of EFCC were at the NSC to seek clarification on the donations and sponsorship and the account/ banks into which those funds were lodged.

The EFCC demanded from the NSC among other things, “details of the releases made to NFF for the prosecution of the three major football tournaments aside budgetary allocations.

“Details of the amount donated by FIFA for the preparation of Super Falcons for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the account /banks into which those funds were lodged.

“Details of the amount donated by CAF for participating in the final of the 2023 AFCON and the accounts/banks into which those funds were lodged.

Also, the EFCC sought to know “Details of companies appointed as consultants for the Nigeria Football Federation and Professional Football League and any other information that may assist this office in this investigation.”

The agency said the request to the NSC was made pursuant to section 38 (1) and (2) of the EFCC establishment Act, 2004.

Despite the efforts by the EFCC, a chieftain of Nigeria’s footballers’ union, Harrison Jalla has dismissed the investigation and concluded that “given experiences from previous such exercises, nothing good will come out of it. He accused the country’s anti-corruption agencies of being part of the problem. Jalla holds both the ICPC and EFCC culpable in the culture of corruption that pervades the sports sector, particularly, Nigerian football.

Speaking with Sports Vanguard, Jalla said, “ Anti-corruption agencies are not helping sports to grow. The return or reappointment of people who have accusation hanging on their necks into key offices at the NFF or NSC makes a huge joke on the war against corruption. They come back because the anti-graft agencies are not prosecuting them.”

He continued, “ If they(anti-graft agencies) had performed their statutory duties, the stories could have been different.”

He therefore called on both the ICPC and the EFCC to live up to their responsibilities. “They should perform their statutory functions; to investigate and prosecute those found culpable. There are too many cases hanging out there between the EFCC and the ICPC,” he contended, adding that the agencies were behaving as if they had compromised.

Jalla said he had taken the ICPC to court because he felt exposed to danger. “My life is at risk. The agencies themselves are bound by law to protect their informants. The law says all whistleblowers have to be protected from harassment. I was not protected from harassment, as we speak.

He said as a whistle blower, “You do all the things you are supposed to do, give them a report but they will end up passing your report to the very people they are supposed to investigate and once they are investigated, they will not prosecute. I had to take the ICPC to court.”

On the ongoing investigation in which he denied knowledge of the petitioners, Jalla said, “They have to tell us what they did with the money. But I have lost faith in the system. This is a country that doesn’t appreciate change.”