NFF Gets 48-hour Ultimatum from Oliseh’s Lawyer
Legal representative of former Super Eagles Head Coach, Sunday Oliseh, has given the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) 48-hour ultimatum to retract statements he considered libelous against his client.
Head of Oliseh’s legal team, Robert Emuekperuo, told BrilaFM yesterday that NFF’s claim that the former Eagles coach was paid monies owed him before he resigned from the job last Friday morning was misleading and capable of diminishing the reputation of the ex international.
He also insisted that Oliseh never insulted Nigerians in his famous YouTube rants as claimed by the NFF.
Emuekperuo hinted that the Glass House in Abuja has been served and given up till Wednesday to retract the statements or face litigation.
But in a swift move, NFF’s Assistant Director (Communications), Ademola Olajire, dismissed the claims by the lawyer, insisting that Oliseh was paid before he dumped Eagles job.
He revealed that the General Secretary of the NFF, Dr Mohammed Sanusi gave the federation’s bankers the go ahead to credit Oliseh’s account before the former Super Eagles captain dumped the job.
“We find it strange though that, after complaints of non-payment, Mr. Oliseh waited to receive monies owed him before resigning. Two days before his resignation, he had passionately appealed that we unite as one force to fight the battle on the football field with the Egyptian national team. We had no idea he was selling a dummy.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Sunday Oliseh resigned and was not sacked, ”observed the NFF spokesman.
“Contrary to the terms of his contract, Coach Oliseh went on air several times to talk about the NFF’s finances and in a derogatory manner. He went on air to insult Nigerians in what is now known as his ‘YouTube rant’ wherein he made serious allegations against the Nigeria media, which he has failed to substantiate. In it, he also noted that he didn’t want the job of the Super Eagles chief coach but was prevailed upon to accept it.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that without claiming to be perfect and working under considerable financial difficulties, not only did the NFF support Mr. Sunday Oliseh in his capacity as chief coach of Super Eagles, it actually showed lots of restraint in the face of aggravated impulsive behaviour by the coach bordering in some cases on insubordination ,” read an extract from a 1,700 words response to several statements credited to Oliseh in the local media.
Oliseh resigned from the Super Eagles job early hours of Friday morning, through an email. He similarly posted the resignation notice on twitter few minutes afterward to end his seven months