NFF Building Fire: Umeh, Baribote call for probe

First vice president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Chief Mike Umeh has called for a security investigation into the strange fire that gutted some offices of the football house insisting that the development was surprising because it happened during the office hour when members of staff were on duty.

Umeh who has refused to recognize Alhaji Aminu Maigari as the president of the NFF arrived the scene in the company of another board member Dr. Shehu Adamu described the fire incident as an at of sabotage adding that the continuous stay of Maigari in Nigerian football is only but a sign of desperation which he said must not be encouraged in any way.
A visibly angry Umeh wondered why the fire incident will happen just few days after the impeached president returned to office adding that time has come for a thorough audit of the account books of NFF.

“This type of strange fire is suspicious because it happened during the working hours and every staff was on his duty post, it looks more like a sabotage, the fire did not start in the night when you can say there was nobody to act fast and we were told that one of the big men, the general secretary was standing there watching the fire as it raged.

“The fire completely destroyed the accounts department and the office of the general secretary, all the files cannot be recovered and that shows you exactly what we have been saying that a lot of corruption is going on in Nigeria Football Federation. That is why we have distanced ourselves, we were not part of the meeting they held yesterday (Tuesday) because nobody can perpetuate himself in power, it is not done because what they did is just to buy time, we will have our election on august 26, if they like let them burn down the whole of Abuja” Umeh stated.

Also reacting to the inferno, the proprietor Nembe City FC, Chief Rumson Baribote said there is every need for security agencies to do a thorough investigation of the fire incident which he said is akin to what could happen only in a place where there is a restaurant.

According to him those who were in the office at the time the fire started have a lot of explanations to make because people ought to have noticed the fire in time to put it off before it could get out of hand.

“The truth is that both the security agencies and the staff on duty have a lot of things to tell Nigerians because this is not a restaurant where this type of fire can just rage without anybody doing something to contain it. Even as I don’t want to apportion any blame on anybody yet, coming at a time when people are calling for probe that would require a lot of documents, then it needs to be investigated because it means that there is something fishy”.

Baribote whose ban from all football related matters was recently lifted said this is the first time that Nigerian football was witnessing the level of destruction.

SOURCE