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By Adeyinka Adedipe and Abiodun Adewale.
The Chairman, Edo State Football Association, Roland Abu, has refuted the vote of no confidence passed on him by the board ahead of Wednesday’s (today’s) election, The PUNCH reports.
Led by its vice chairman, Aghedo Moses, the board had on Monday written to the Nigeria Football Federation, notifying them of Abu’s sack over his alleged inability to render financial reports amongst other issues. They also accused him of autocratic behaviour and running the Edo FA like a personal business.
The letter captioned ‘Vote of no confidence” read, “We, Edo State Football Association Board respectfully write to refer and draw your attention to the above-mentioned subject and to inform you of some burning issues in Edo State Football Association. This relates to lack of confidence in the current Edo FA chairman, Roland Abu, due to the following reasons: taking autocratic decisions without due process, running Edo FA as if it’s his personal enterprise. Since his inception as the Chairman of Edo State Football Association three years ago, he has not been able to render financial reports to his board members, even when the board insisted.”
However, Abu, in an interview with The PUNCH, said the moves were politically motivated.
“That is what led to my predecessor leaving office as well. He was impeached for no reason. I was the vice chairman then and I called him to hear his side of the story but because he was angry with people, he decided not to come back. But I will not walk away like that, my case will be different from his,” Abu said.
“Last Thursday, they called for a stakeholders meeting and said they had petitions against me, but I did not see any of them. At the end of the day, the commission chairman settled it and asked us to hold the board meeting that Thursday, which we did and fashioned out a way for the election with resolutions sent to the NFF and the commission,” Abu told Th PUNCH.
He added that the claims were untrue as he has personally funded the association.
“On Sunday night again, my secretary wrote another letter and said there was another board meeting, that he was directed from above; because they knew the candidate they are sponsoring cannot defeat me in the election on Wednesday (today). They said they passed a vote of no confidence, claiming I am high-headed and embezzled money. Nobody gave me money; I have been running the association with my own personal money. The government has not given us a dime nor attention.”