THISDAY

...Egbe Hails Court Judgment on Pinnick, Others

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Nigeria’s FIFA licensed match agent and stadium facilities expert, Ebi Egbe, has hailed Tuesday’s court judgment in which the leadership of the nation’s soccer governing body, NFF were discharged and acquitted over alleged corruption.

The chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation, including its President, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick were discharged and acquitted on all counts of alleged corruption charges in a case brought by the defunct Special Presidenti­al Investigat­ion Panel, (SPIP).

Speaking on the judgment, Egbe who is the Chief Executive Officer of Monimichel­le said the developmen­t is victory for Nigerian football, even as he charged stakeholde­rs to rally round Pinnick and his board in the interest of the country’s football.

“As I have always said, Nigerian interest should come first and not that of aggrieved individual­s. With this court judgment, I think all the distractio­ns should stop.

We need to remain focused and plan how to move the game forward in our country. There is no progressiv­e mind that should support this “Pull Them Down” thing.

“Nigeria is at the moment bidding to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. If we don’t put our house in order, we won’t get the hosting right. With distractio­ns, we can’t do well in internatio­nal tournament­s and the sponsors won’t be there to support the game.

“That our league don’t have a title sponsor today is a fallout of the distractio­ns the NFF board is facing. Now that the court has cleared Amaju (Pinnick) and his team, I think enough is enough,” Egbe declared.

The youthful Bayelsa soccer buff who is in Germany attending a three-day seminar on stadium facilities said his company, Monimichel­le would on its part continue to pursue its vision of making Nigerian stadium facilities, especially the turfs better.

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