By Daily Sports on June 18, 2019

The furore over the exclusion of the Super Eagles’ African Cup of Nations expenditure in the 2019 budget continues to rage with the Sports Ministry yesterday saying that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should be held solely responsible for the omission. But the NFF has also brought out documents to show that the omission ‘was a deliberate act by the ministry.’

Last week, the NFF raised the alarm that it was finding it difficult to meet its obligations to the Super Eagles and other national teams because the Sports Ministry failed to include its envelop in the budget submitted to the Federal Government.

However, a statement by Nneka Anibeze, who is the Media Aide to the immediate past Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, yesterday said the NFF failed to capture its Africa Cup of Nations tournament budget in its 2019 programmes sent to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

The statement quotes Dalung as claiming that the allegation was false and intended to portray the ministry, particularly himself in bad light.

“They were asked to submit their plans for 2019 to the office of Budget and National Planning, directly. They did not include AFCON in what they submitted to the Budget office. When the budget process was already advanced, I think it was already at the National Assembly when they discovered that they did not make provisions for AFCON.

“They approached the Ministry of Youth and Sports and I directed that they should write, so that we can apply for intervention from the office of the President. This happened towards the terminal date of the tenure of this administration.

“I also took it up personally with the President as requested, for his special intervention to save the situation but of course, the process, as we all know is slow. It has to go to the office of the President to the Ministry of Finance for advice before it will now go to Budget office and back for approval.

“It is a cumbersome process and therefore it is yet to materialise. Based on the time they initiated the process, it is not the fault of anybody but the fault of the Nigeria Football Federation which completely failed to include AFCON when they were invited by the office of Budget and National Planning to submit their program and budget for the year.” (The Guardian)

•Photo shows Solomon Dalung

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 18, 2019

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