Olawale Ajimotokanin Abuja
In apparent reaction to threats to boycott the FIBA World Cup qualifiers slated for later this year, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has requested the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commence immediate processing for payment monies owed Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress.
This directive is coming on the heel of embarrassing protests in social media by the mostly foreign-based players not to honour invitations for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers due to the nonpayment of outstanding entitlements by the immediate past board of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) headed by Ahmadu Musa Kida. Caption
The basketball players had even alleged in some of the videos that have gone viral on the social media that some officials of the federation and sports ministry personnel may have misappropriated the $230,000 donated to the team by Corporate Nigeria.
But in a swift move to douse the tension generated by the accusations, the
Permanent Secretary, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ismaila Abubakar, directed yesterday via a statement the apex bank to start processing the payment to the players.
He said the male team, D’Tigers would also be paid as soon as their account details were supplied.
Abubakar denied allegations that the ministry officials appropriated the basketballers’ money, insisting all the donations made to the female and male teams for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by GTB, Access and Zenith Bank remained intact in the CBN account of the NBBF.
He further confirmed that the $230,000 donated to the basketball teams by the banks under its ‘Adopt-a-Team’ programme was intact in the NBBF’s domiciliary account domiciled with the CBN.
The statement signed by the permanent secretary also hinted that only 12 members of the female national team have lodged their domiciliary account numbers for the payments.
“The Ministry waited for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied so that the processing of payments can be one-off as requested by the CBN,” the statement further clarified.
Abubakar assured the players and other sportsmen and women that all outstanding Olympics and Paralympics Games allowances and bonuses were being processed and were only delayed by the paucity of funds.
He also stressed that the Ministry of Finance has been fully kept in the picture about details of the outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and efforts were being made to secure the release.
The players claimed all money due to them made up of $73,118 allowances per player, $24,000 grant each and the $100,000 donated by the banks should be remitted to them.
Among others, the players also wanted the federal government to give them house gifts for accomplishing three consecutive Afrobasket title victories just like the football team that was well rewarded for winning the AFCON in 1994 as well as the Olympic soccer gold winning squad of 1996.
Finally, the D’Tigress are also asking the government to provide a state-of-the-art arena to enable the team play in front of the home crowds and their families as all their three historic wins were on foreign soil.
