Guardian

We will meet in court, says ex-NPL boss

SEQUEL to the comment credited to the sacked chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) board, Victor Rumson Baribote, that the Sports Minister, Honourable Bolaji Abdullahi influenced his removal from the league board, the Club Owners have asked him to prove his allegation.

However, the former NPL boss, Baribote, told the Club Owners yesterday that he would not waste his time engaging them in war of words until the outcome of the case he instituted challenging his removal from office.

Spokesperson of the Club Owners, Mike Idoko, said in a statement Wednesday that Baribote’s allegation that the minister masterminded his removal smacks off ignorance, stressing that the former NPL boss was only looking for whom to blame for his inability to perpetuate himself in office.

According to Idoko, the NPL under the leadership of Baribote, threw away all gains made over the years by his predecessors. He said: “Baribote missed the point by saying that the Sports Minister masterminded his removal from office. As managers of clubs, we know what is good and best for us and we realised late that with the Baribote-led board, the Nigerian league was heading to the rocks. And for him to allege that the minister masterminded his removal is to say the least insult to the honourable minister.

“The NPL under Baribote was never elected in the first place because no election took place when the court sacked Davidson Owumi. The Club Owners gave him the mandate believing, he would bring relief to the comatose league. Title sponsorship became a problem and the clubs were made to bear the brunt of the lack of sponsorship,” Idoko said.

The Club Owners, according to Idoko, would never be stooge to anybody, stating that they would not hesitate to withdraw from the present Interim Management Committee when they start showing trait of underdevelopment.

“The Club Owners has never done the bidding of anybody and will never do. We were fed up with the management style of the last board. We did what was right in line with the statutes of the NPL and the power given to clubs by FIFA. If the present board starts following the footsteps of Baribote, we will have no choice than to pull out,” Idoko, who is a member of the Interim Committee, said.

He declined comment on the purported court case instituted against him and others by Baribote, saying he would talk after the case had been settled in court.

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Baribote said: “I have no time to waste talking to them (Club Owners) for now. All I have to say is that we will meet in court on January 22.”