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Former Presidential candidate to the 2018 Nigeria Football Federation NFF election in Katsina State, Chief Chinedu Okoye has stated that the current leadership of the Nigeria football under Amaju Pinnick does not have vision for the development of football in the country.

Chief Okoye who is also the chairman of Bimo Sporting Club, in an interview also alleged that since ascending to the office of NFF presidency, the officials of the federation who are facing various corruption cases bothering on financial infidelity and thievery, have stolen over N15 billion from the coffers of the Nigeria football.

Okoye who spoke in an exclusive interview with Bestchoicesports.com.ng further alleged that the accused persons have bribed everybody in order to subvert justice but stressed that “they can bribe the angels but they cannot bribe God.”

He wondered why the various state Football Associations (FAs) chairmen across the country had not gathered to impeach the accused officials adding that if it were in a saner country, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick and other accused officials should long have vacated their positions.

“The best thing for Pinnick and his gang in NFF is for them to resign now and leave Nigeria football alone. They don’t have any vision to develop our football. These guys have destroyed our football, they have looted Nigeria football to zero.

“You cannot fool all the people all the time. Football is the only thing that have united this country. Football is the only language that all Nigerians speak together – Hausa, Igbo Yoruba – every culture in Nigeria. We speak one language when it comes to football. When it comes to football, we don’t have Boko Haram, we don’t have IPOB, we don’t have Ayes as we saw in Lagos, we don’t have Niger Delta Militants. We just have one love when it comes to football.

“Look at what is happening to the senior female team, the coach (Thomas Dennerby) is not coming back. Why? The criminals in NFF have a case to answer. They should go to the court and answer their cases. Nigerians now know that after the elections in Katsina which Pinnick bought with money, that there was no election. I said it before and I am saying it again, the whole FA chairmen, all of them, are the problems of Nigeria football because if the whole state FA chairmen are sincere enough, nothing stops them from coming together and impeach these criminals. But they are doing nothing, they are there for their own selfish interest.

“The development of football in Nigeria should be done at the grassroots and the state FA should start it but they are not there to do it and they don’t want to send the criminals out. In which sane country will Pinnick still be the president of the federation with all these allegations upon his head? These are not allegations, they are facts. FIFA brought money, the money was diverted; there was money stolen from the federation’s account.

“We know that President Buhari is working. The President of Nigeria will not close his eyes and let these people get away with these loots which is more than 15 billion Naira they stole in 5 years from Nigerians. N15 billion is what they have stolen from this country and they are still working around in the streets but I know that with time their rooms are already made in Kuje Prison.

“Their rooms are already in Kuje, they can run but they cannot hide, I told them that last year, you can bribe the angels but God don’t take bribe. They have bribed all the bribeables but their bribes have already expired. In this second term of Buhari, he will prove something to Nigerians, he is there to sanitise the system.

“God willing, we have a new minister of sports and he needs to know what is going on in the Nigeria football.

“Our league is dead, our football is dead, and nobody is talking about the league because the LMC chairman’s house is sealed. How could you talk about the league when he takes the sponsorship money to go and buy houses and jewelleries, sleep in five-star hotels and live expensive life style? What is the salary of Shehu Dikko to make him acquire such property? What is the job of Shehu Dikko in the last five years? So let’s not just close our eyes and think that everything is okay.

“Some of the Nigerian press editors have failed Nigerians by not telling the truth. I know the people they have bought over, they gave them small money and they closed their mouth. 

“Pinnick and co have failed the nation, they are not supposed to be there, they should be ready to go to Kuje. They will go to Kuje. If they do not go to Kuje, then the President of Nigeria has failed Nigerians. But I am 100 per cent sure that this administration of President Mohammadu Buhari will never allow these guys to go free. He will uproot these criminals in our football,” he said.