By Ebube Dike

The leadership of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF has disclaimed the tweet on the official handle of the women’s national team.

The federation described it as a distraction and a mischievous attempt by the former General Manager of the team, Mactaben Amachree, to bring the basketball federation into disreput.

The tweet, which was about the donations from Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and Access Bank towards the team’s preparation, is ill-timed and in bad faith.

According to information, the former GM who was relieved of her role before the 2020 Olympics pre-qualifiers is still angry and will go to any length to fight the federation and disrupt its activities.

NBBF President Engr. Musa Kida confirmed that the Mactaben, who solely controls the Twitter handle, has refused to hand over the page to the federation.

“The national team or basketball belongs to nobody. Basketball in Nigeria is bigger than an individual or group of people who think without them success cannot be achieved.”

“We employed her and, we reserve the exclusive rights to also fire her based on some certain reasons best known to us.”

The federation advised the former D’Tigress player not to tarnish her image with her actions because “the internet does not forget”.

Kida said although the tweet about the part payment of the allowances since 2017 is true, which has gone to confirm that the Federal Government has not fully paid the NBBF for all its international participation since 2017, making it public in such a manner was an infantile behaviour.

“We would have loved to pay our players for their services, but the situation of ground has made it difficult.”

“The 100 million naira generating this controversy cannot be used for anything else except for the purpose for which it was donated. Any other purpose is a misapplication of funds which is a financial crime”, Kida continued.

While appealing for understanding, he said the federation is still pushing for those funds and will offset its debt no matter how long.

In the meantime, the federation will reach out to the appropriate quarters to get back control of the account.