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Elegbeleye calls for best practices as NPFL hits last stretch
Joel Ajayi
This Sunday, the first of the remaining six matchdays of the 2023/24 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season will hold and Chairman of the league board, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye has called on the clubs and match Referees to stay true to the spirit and letters of football rules.
Elegbeleye, who commended the clubs for improved performances of their players as reflected in the quality of play and competitiveness of the matches, urged them to keep the league free of bad blood on and off the field.
“We have had a fairly great season with improvements in quality of play and standard of the teams. It is important that we complete the last six games devoid of controversy and unnecessary disputes capable of ridiculing the game in the eyes of the football World”, stated the NPFL Boss.
Turning to the Referees, Elegbeleye, who is also the 2nd Vice President of the NFF, warned against incompetence and bias in officiating matches.
“We witnessed overall fantastic officiating for most of the completed fixtures, and I want to commend the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) for the good job their members did so far,” remarked the League chief.
“The NPFL and the NFF have shown from the start of the season that there is no place for poor officiating in the league and we are not relenting as the monitoring will be intensified and any one found wanting will be delisted swiftly”, he warned.
“We are looking at ways to reward outstanding Referees as a way of motivating our crop of Match officials and at the appropriate time, this will be unveiled”, promised the former National Assembly Chairman of the House Committee on Sports.
The season was paused after Matchday 32 to allow Rivers United complete backlog of games that accumulated due to their involvement in the CAF Confederation Cup.
When the season resumes on Sunday, May 26, two of the fixtures in Umuahia and Jos would be broadcast live on Startimes while six in Umuahia, Kano, Katsina, Ilorin, Owerri and Jos will be on the NPFL_Live, the OTT live streaming platform powered by Propel Sports Africa.
Matchday 34 will hold on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday of June 1 & 2. Matchday 35 falls on June 8-9, while Matchday 36 is a midweek fixture of June 12. Matchday 37 will hold on June 16 while the NPFL will, in the days ahead, announce the date for the last matchday of the season.
Rangers International, Remo Stars, Enyimba International, and Shooting Stars Sports Club are the front-runners for the title.
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Groups condemn sponsored protests, media attacks against ex-NNPCL boss Kyari
Joel Bisi
Coalition Of Civil Society Organisations In Nigeria (COCSON) and Bloggers and Vloggers, Content Creators Association (BAVCCA) have warned against politically engineered protests against the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari, who “served the nation faithfully.”
In a statement jointly signed by COCSON’s National Mobilisation Officer Comrade Ibrahim Danfulani and BAVCCA’s Spokesperson Efe John Abayomi, the two groups urged President Bola Tinubu to overlook undue distraction from enemies of his administration while rejecting a calculated attempt to malign the person and office Kyari hitherto held concerning the $2 billion crude-for-loan deal.
COCSON and BAVCCA chided agents of mischief and fake news merchants over baseless media attacks on the former NNPCL GCEO while urging anyone with genuine proof of Kyari’s wrongdoing while in office to present it through proper legal channels and not through sponsored headlines and mob protests.
The groups maintained that Kyari has done everything a true patriotic and honest leader can do. In a very difficult economic crisis and Part of the solution to Nigeria’s foreign exchange challenge, a puzzle that nearly crumbled the economy.
The statement read in part:
“We will not sit back and watch a reformer be sacrificed on the altar of politics. We call on our progressive President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remain steadfast and not allow these desperate tactics to distract his government from the broader goal of sanitizing the petroleum sector.
“If anyone has genuine proof of wrongdoing, let them present it through proper legal channels — not through sponsored headlines and mob protests.
“Mele Kyari has done everything a true patriotic and honest leader can do. In a very difficult economic crisis, He stood for the greater good of all Nigerians instead of a few cabals. He has been Part of the solution to Nigeria’s foreign exchange challenge, a puzzle that nearly crumbled the economy.
“Let us be clear: this is not a scandal — it is a structured misrepresentation of a standard commercial transaction that predates this administration and has been carefully supervised under the regulatory and sovereign structures of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
THE TRUTH THEY WON’T TELL YOU:
“The $3.3 Billion Crude-Backed Loan Was a Sovereign Deal: This transaction, executed in collaboration with Afreximbank and backed by the Federal Government, was designed to stabilize Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves and provide a buffer against economic shocks — not to “mortgage Nigeria’s future” as ignorantly portrayed by politically motivated street protesters hired by ungrateful elements working against the progressive leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Kyari Was Not Acting Alone: Every stage of the crude-for-loan framework was vetted by relevant agencies — including the Ministry of Finance, Debt Management Office, and the Attorney General’s Office. Kyari was executing national policy, not personal ambition.
“No Missing Crude, No Diversion of Funds: There is zero evidence of crude diversion, missing shipments, or financial misappropriation. All proceeds and repayment schedules are transparent, documented, and auditable. Anyone who has a valid case should first present proof of his claims instead of taking Nigerians’ collective sense of judgment for a ride.
“Kyari Has Been Nigeria’s Most Transparent NNPC Boss in Decades: Under Kyari’s leadership, NNPC was transitioned into a commercially-run, limited liability company. For the first time in NNPC’s history, its books are published, audited, and made public. That’s not corruption — that’s reform.
“The Protest Is Politically Engineered: We have credible information that certain vested interests, threatened by the sanitization of the oil sector, are sponsoring protests and media hysteria to derail reforms and force Kyari out.”
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