By Goodluck Ikiebe.
The Nigerian Youth and Sports Development Ministry has denied allegations that its Officials shared money meant for Basketballers’.
A statement by the Permanent Secretary, Ismaila Abubakar, says the donation is intact in CBN account of the NBBF.
A section of the media had reported through a video clip that its officials shared some money donated to the Men and Women Basketball Teams ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The statement says the Ministry wishes to make the following clarifications :
1.The $230,000 Dollars donated to the Basketball teams by the Banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the Ministry is intact in the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
2.That only the 12 female Team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers.
According to the statement, “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.
It said the Ministry has requested the CBN to commence the processing of the payment to the Female Basketball Players immediately.
“The Male will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied” it explained.
The Ministry wishes to state further that all outstanding -Olympics and Paralympics Games allowances and bonuses are being processed and only slowed down by funds availability.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance has been fully furnished with details of the outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and NFF and efforts are being made to secure the release.
