A House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee has summoned the president of Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Musa Gusau to appear before it unfailingly on Thursday (today) and respond to the feud between the federation and Super Falcons over unpaid allowances.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, investigating the dispute between the Super Falcons and Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Hon Blessing Onuh issued the summon at the panel’s investigative hearing, yesterday.
Onuh frowned at the NFF president’s deliberate refusal to honour the invitation of the Ad-hoc Committee, insisting that he must come in person for the investigation.
She said: “The NFF you were supposed to appear before the House on the 17th of August last week but unfortunately, the reasons that you gave is not as important as the work of this Ad-hoc Committee.
“Nigerians are interested, Nigerians are watching. The girls did extremely well and they made Nigerians proud, so we shouldn’t take this investigative hearing lightly.
“We gave an opportunity for the president of NFF to appear before this Ad-hoc Committee I will say invariably he is the one summoning us, he came up with an excuse that is not as important as what we have.
“The allowances and the dues that were supposed to be paid to the female footballers, the Super Falcons and he turned it down, what is more important, is it for him to attend the FIFA Women Convention or to appear before this Committee?
“And even at that he has the effrontery to just this morning send his SA that he won’t be able to make it, it simply means he is taking us for granted, he is taking us for a ride and we will not tolerate it we will not.”
Earlier, the NFF secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi stated that the NFF president could not attend the investigative hearing because of his ill-health.
The committee refused to take presentations from the secretary general and other representatives of the NFF president and asked them to leave, insisting that Gusau must appear on Thursday at 11am.
This was just as members of the committee alleged that the chairman of the House Committee on Sports, Hon Ekene Abubakar Adams was frustrating the exercise.
The lawmakers who do not want to be mentioned hinted that Adams who was a football manager allegedly told the NFF president not to honour the Ad-hoc Committee’s invitation.