Alleged Financial Scandal Against Abakaliki FC Coach Meant to Distract Management – Ebonyi Sports Commissioner ‎

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The Ebonyi State Commissioner for Youth Development and Sports, Mr. Richard Idike, has described the recent allegation of financial scandal against Abakaliki FC Head Coach, Starplus Aniesta Chibuikem, as a deliberate attempt to distract the club’s management from delivering on its mandate.

‎ ‎The Commissioner made this known while speaking with journalists in Abakaliki, following an incident involving an operative of the State Anti-Graft Commission who reportedly attempted to arrest the coach at the Pa Ngele Oruta Township Stadium over alleged unauthorized deductions from players’ entitlements. ‎ ‎It would be recalled that an Investigative Officer of the commission, Barr. Chukwuorji Igodo, accused the coach of imposing an initial 10 percent deduction on players’ allowances, which was later allegedly converted to a fixed monthly charge of ₦50,000 per player. ‎

‎The officer also alleged that eight indigenous players from Ebonyi State were removed from the squad and replaced with players recruited from Enugu State. ‎ ‎Reacting to the development, Mr. Idike dismissed the allegations as false, baseless and politically motivated, insisting that neither the ministry nor the club management mismanaged any player’s funds. ‎ ‎According to him, the ministry has maintained a high level of transparency and accountability in all its financial dealings, stressing that recruitment of players and financial expenditures concerning Abakaliki FC were carried out in line with due process. ‎

‎The Commissioner explained that upon returning from an official trip to Abuja, he visited the Anti-Corruption Agency to honour an invitation sent to him, only to be told by the Chairman that the agency was not aware of the letter. ‎ ‎“When I received the information that our coach was invited, I contacted the officer who authored the letter but he ignored my calls. I tried to explain that we were at a critical stage of the football season and needed full concentration,” he said. ‎

‎He further stated that he later received another letter requesting him to appear before the agency with his statement of account, appointment letter and other documents, but when he visited the office, the Chairman clearly told him he was not aware of the invitation and did not authorize it. ‎ ‎Mr. Idike also stated that the same officer later stormed the stadium during training in an attempt to arrest the coach a day before a crucial match against Godswill Akpabio United, an action he described as unnecessary distraction.

‎ ‎Speaking on the allegation of illegal deductions, the Commissioner said previous investigations carried out by the ministry, including private interviews with players, did not confirm any wrongdoing. ‎ ‎"On the salary allegation,what did we do? Last season, thesame story emerged and i had to set up a meeting, i did personal interview privately trying different players to tell me the truth about this issue and they confided on me that nothing like that was happening. ‎ ‎"I had equally hosted these players before coach and entire management to know if anybody will come open with this allegation, but all we hear is rumour that cannot be proved, and how do i know the truth if all these measures have not proved this allegation and when no player is bold enough to tell me their problem?

‎ ‎He explained that out of 45 registered players, 23 were indigenes of Ebonyi State while the remaining 22 were selected from other parts of the country to strengthen the team, in line with an agreement with the state government. ‎ ‎He added that some players who were not featured in the first half of the season were moved to the feeder team to enable them participate in the Challenge Cup while still receiving their full salaries. ‎ ‎"As concern the allegation of money, i want to tell you that any player you dropped can do anything to destroy you. Out of the 45-players that were registered, over 200 players came for the trial and some of them felt bad that they were dropped, but you can't register everybody. Besides, we had agreement with the state government which we kept. ‎ ‎"We agreed that out of the 45-players that 23 will be indigenes while we allowed Coach to select 22-players from any part of the country to enable us have a good squad that will win a match while holding the Coach accountable as you can't give him poor players and expect him to do magic. ‎ ‎"Some of these indigeneous players have not played in the just concluded first section of the season, but to ensure they maintain relevance, we have to send them to the feeder team to enable them play Challenge cup while strengthening them professionally even as their salary remain thesame. ‎ ‎He therefore urged stakeholders to support the ongoing reforms in the sports sector rather than engage in actions capable of disrupting the performance of the state team. ‎