Guardian

STILL baffled by the way the federations’ elections were conducted, Proprietor of Dodan Warriors Basketball Club, Sam Ahmedu, and the zonal representatives have vowed to use all means available to correct the anomaly during the election.

Ahmedu said the National Sports Commission (NSC) breached his fundamental human right by denying him the opportunity of being on the board despite meeting the requirements.

Showing a letter written to the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) by FIBA Africa and signed by the Secretary General, Alphonse Bile, Ahmedu stated that he was cleared alongside Muktar Khaleh as elected members of FIBA Africa.

He said he was taken aback when a letter signed by Khaleh said he was nominated and not elected contrary to what the African body, which said he was elected in 1997 as president of FIBA Africa Council of Marketing and also a member of the central board.

“What Khaleh’s letter has done is to slander me and portray FIBA Africa as a corrupt body. He is saying that FIBA Africa’s letter is fake and I am also not happy that I was not given the right to defend myself before being omitted from the board.

“I believe the ministry has not been fair to me and its painful that those that orchestrated this move against me are people I respect so much. If we failed to solve the problem through every administrative procedure, I have resolved to take the case to court to ensure I get what is due to me,” he added.

Babs Ogunade, who spoke on behalf of the zonal representatives, said it was an aberration that people representing over 24 states of the federation were denied their rights in a strange election process. He said the four zonal representatives were the real stakeholders and it was a sad development that they had to stage a walk out when it was clear that the path had been cleared for the emergence of a particular candidate.

“We are not fighting any individual but the fractured electoral process, which led to the emergence of the new head of the NBBF. If they didn’t want an election, they should not have come out with guidelines. What they did at the elections is like shifting the goal post when the game is on,” he added.

Ogunade also wondered why DCP Moses Jitoboh was taken to the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) when the Police authorities through a letter nominated him to be on the NBBF board.

The quartet- Ogunade, Musa Kida, Igoche Mark and Osita Nwachukwu- are asking that the stakeholders onto the board of the NBBF be properly reconstituted with qualified persons and that the election that brought in the current leadership of the NBBF be annulled and a new one conducted.