Bayelsa State Football Ass Boss, Ogun Responds to Detractors
...Commits to Grassroots Football Dev't in the State
Chairman of the Bayelsa State Football Association, Poubeni Ogun Esq, says he is not bothered about frivolous claims by his detractors rather he is concerned about the development of grassroots football in the State.
Ogun made the declaration while reacting to claims by Mr. Ebi Egbe and Chief Baribote Rumson that the last Bayelsa State Elective Congress was manipulated.
He noted that before the state football body would approve the election, it has to ensure that the local government complied with the rules by setting up appeals and election petition committees and other guidelines.
Ogun asserted that the state football association would only be involved when it is satisfied with those processes before sending an observer to supervise the exercise and that the election was supervised by Mr Diseye Nwankwe and Mr. Fubara Owonaro who are members of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN).
He explained that the petition to the
President of the Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau two days after the poll was laughable because their earlier report on the matter was clear that the election went on smoothly and that the only disagreement was that players sponsored by PFAN walked out of the venue before the commencement of voting.
Ogun, who noted that the plan of the duo of Ebi Egbe and Chief Baribote Rumson was to ensure that the elective congress doesn’t see the light of the day, said the duo were ignorant of the rules governing the elections, pointing out that they ought to have participated before tendering any complaints about the outcome of the election.
He pointed out that the matter cannot be heard in the election petition and the appeals committee because they did not take part in the process, stressing that they were aware of the issue that was why they immediately sent their petition to Gusau to entertain the matter, that Gusau could not entertain it because he does not have the jurisdiction to hear it.
Ogun further explained that Mr. Ebi Egbe and Chief Baribote Rumson have no case because the candidate they sponsored could not take part in the election since they walked out of the hall, maintaining that the duo have nothing to present to the election petition committee.
In addition, all the issues canvassed in the video were presented before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa was struck out for lacking merit that if their case was meritorious they would have appealed the case.
The FA boss, who stressed that he was focused on the development of football in the state and would not allow himself to be distracted, said the minimum requirement to contest as an FA chairman is the Secondary School Certificate and not the statement of results presented by Mr Egbe in the last election.
He opined that under his tenure as FA chairman, over thirty grassroots coaches in the State were trained and acquired NFF-D licence certificate which was subsidized to accommodate more coaches, and that prior to that, the state FA sponsored three grassroots coaches to obtain the CAF-C certificate, stressing that plans were underway to train 22 among the 30 coaches.
Ogun explained that prior to his coming on board, there was no state league and that it was his administration that introduced one, alongside the other cadet competition which has become a yearly programme, pointing out that it was his administration that built the FA house in the State.
The FA boss remarked that if there is anyone that wants to save Nigeria football is certainly not Chief Baribote whose time as Nigeria Premier league chairman was characterized by uncertainty that during Baribote’s time that the league usually starts late unlike what the NPFL is enjoying today.
According to him, Ebi Egbe was paid monies to construct the FIFA goal Project pitch in Ugborodo, Delta State but failed to complete the project, maintaining that the job ought to have been completed two years ago but the work is still in a deplorable state having collected monies.
He equally said the process to construct a state-of-the-art edifice for the Bayelsa State Football Association has begun, hinting that the governor has agreed to compensate the FA with a better structure, and that the State FA also attracted scouts directly from Europe with government support.
