Society Gists

Former Super Eagles Coach Sunday Oliseh has in a latest outburst disputed the claim by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that he was paid N20 million as his backlog of salaries shortly before he resigned on February 25 in the middle of Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

Oliseh, who was due to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Sports on Thursday, has also written the House and the NFF that he would not be available for the parley.

But bank details obtained by THISDAY indicate that the NFF authorized its bankers to transfer N19.5million into Oliseh’s bank account with one of the top banks in the country.

The payments were in three tranches of N9million, N4,5million and N5million.
“Even Sunday Oliseh did not indicate in his letter to the NFF that we are owing him salaries for December, January and February. What he is asking are allowances, medical bills, ticket refund and payments for feeding of the team during the training camp in Pretoria, South Africa,” observed the source at the federation.

The source declared that NFF would pay the bonuses and allowances but the ticket refund and hospital bill he incurred in Belgium were at his own expense.

“Our medical team at the training camp in Pretoria insisted that the food was qualitative enough for our players before he went ahead to incur the expenses without approval.

Secondly, when he fell ill in Port Harcourt, we promised to take him to a top hospital here in Nigeria for treatment but he refused, insisting only in returning to Belgium for what he called proper care. I wonder if top Nigerian officials don’t attend hospitals here in Nigeria,” revealed the NFF official who did not want to be quoted.

However, Oliseh added a new twist to the saga yesterday on his blog, sundayoliseh.tv, where he described as a tissue of lies and misleading the ‘Glass House’ claim that the salary payment was made into his account domiciled with a Nigerian bank.

Oliseh, posted his current statement of account from February 1 to 29, which showed that at no point was the account credited with the three months salaries as claimed by the federation.

He had earlier sued NFF for defamation but asked his lawyers to withdraw the lawsuit after well- meaning Nigerians intervened.

Oliseh’s last letter to the NFF expires today after which he intends to take the matter to both FIFA and Court for Sports Arbitration (CAS) in Zurich, Switzerland.

The ex international insisted that he threw in the towel because some certain vested interest in NFF put self interest above national interest.

“I also feel in order not to let Nigerians get the true picture, they are hell-bent on tarnishing my credibility. And that is why they have come up with this story like they have paid me and then I left.

“I have attached underneath here since I am no longer going ahead with the lawsuit, the statement of my account, of the bank which the NFF deals with in the few occasions that I have been paid.

“I have attached it underneath here and you can see that there is no payment that was made by the NFF to me. Up till the time I resigned on the 25th and even after that, up to the 29th that the month ended, you can see that,” Oliseh said in his post on YouTube.

The former international midfielder, also attached vouchers to support his claim that he fed the team with his money when the team camped in Pretoria, South Africa for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda.

NFF dismissed this claim as totally false as the buffet provided by the hotel Eagles stayed during the pre-Rwanda 2016 was certified good for the team. Oliseh said he incurred 55, 000 Rand for the purpose.

Oliseh warned that the because of the vested interest, whoever stepped in as the Super Eagles chief coach and decided to put Nigeria first will always face hitches.

“I also believe that Nigerians deserve to know the truth. I feel that it is important to know that my position as regards Nigeria coming first was a hindrance to the personal interest of certain vested interest in the NFF… Now, this also explains why important or very necessary expenditures that are important for the progression of our country, like wages of the players, the coaches are always placed secondary. Whereas other expenditures that have very little bearing to the progression of our country will always be catered for first.”

He lashed the Technical Committee of the NFF for not equipping him with information on Egypt who Nigeria meets on March 25, though he requested for materials way back in July 2015.

The former Eagles coach also accused the committee of trying to influence who plays for Nigeria, who gets invited, who would play, saying he refused to yield to such request because they are not coaches.

Oliseh insisted that he considered the option of resigning via a simple email when NFF failed to respond to his ultimatum on February 16 in respect of all his demands. He also claimed he contacted Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, before he took his decision.