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Sports Ministry Directors Are Evil People-Solomon Ogba
…As Brown Ebewele Indicts Ogba in another $150, 000 IAAF Scandal
Joel Ajayi
The former President of Athletic Federation AFN, Solomon Ogba has tagged most of the Directors in the Ministry of Youth and Sports as wicked and evil people that do not want the progress of AFN and Sports at heart.
Speaking on why he resigned from AFN board in a Telephone interview, Ogba expressed: “It has been like this, every Minister that came left with a bad name, those Directors that are there are evil people, they remaining, maybe probably Tammy Danagogo who left with little dignity, every other minister left that place with a bad name something is fundamentally wrong, this country must look at this carefully and call people out.
“The level of interference is too much and the only option left is to resign which I did early in the morning
People should respect the constituted authority, they have divided the board, we have two factions I can’t be at the board and seat down particularly when the one who appointed me to be on the board as philanthropist quota, so, I can’t be in the board that I know they have violated the rules with IAAF.
“When we talked about interference, I am talking about ministry for instance where ministry we have a meeting with some board members to impeach the President earlier this year and they wanted me to be a rubber stamp to that.
“There was a congress called by the President and board meeting they scuttled effort of the federation to do that and they are trying to call a separate board meeting in Abuja tomorrow (Tuesday) I will not be part of that.”
However, a Present board member of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria AFN, Brown Ebewele has fingered, Solomon Ogba in another $150,000 scandal that just hit AFN.
It will be recalled that AFN was hit by another $150,000 scandal the World Athletics grant scandal.
Reacting to the scandal, Brown Ebewele in a telephone interview said that no one else could have collected the money than Solomon Ogba who was the federation president then.
According to him, that money was given to federation and no individual has access to the federation account its only federation that IAAF has business with.
When asked he is sure that the latest $150,000 sandal was collected under Solomon Ogba? He replied: Who collected it, it’s him now; Ogba said the money was sent to the LOC who was the chairman of LOC and what business does IAAF have with LOC instead of the federation?
I was a technical director as far back as 1997 when we hosted African Championship in Ibadan Oyo state, the IAAF gave us $90,000 as a grant, the money was paid into the federation account, and the IAAF only deal with the federation, IAAF does not have any business with LOC. It’s only in Nigeria that is like a banana republic that anybody will do anything and get away with it, Solomon Ogba is talking nonsense.” He said.
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CELEBRATING A CENTURY-OLD CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR TRAJECTORY IN NIGERIA
This week, millions of Nigerians and others across the globe will join the Ministry of Aviation and Space Development under the irrepressible leadership of the Honourable Minister, Festus Keyamo(SAN),and all the notable Aviation sector stakeholders in and outside the country,in celebrating a century of Nigeria’s civil aviation history.
There is no doubt that under the present leadership of the Honourable Minister and within the short spell of time in his stewardship,he has consciously and intentionally embarked on a “silent revolution” for the industry with very veritable and laudable landmarks that have consistently grown the industry.
Some of these spirited efforts for instance have consequently led to trust restoration amongst international lessors, financier,any global partners.Of note also is assidiously working for the full domestication and implementation of the “Cape Town Convention Agreement” ,which gives Airlines access to modern fleets of competitive rates as well as enforcement of IDERA(Irrevocable Deregulation and Export Request Authorization).
Having well applauded these vital contemporary initiatives,it will also be germane to cast our minds in retrospect by taking a peep into our history over several decades to recognise some of the notable forebears in the industry whose impressionabl efforts cannot be overlooked,as they took the impetuous initiatives of breaking the ice at the nascent stage.
It will aptly corroborate the truism which says that… ” a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”.
The above is vividly captured from a tribute by the First Republic Minister of Aviation Chief Mbazulike Amaechi at the funeral of late Igwe of Oba,HRH Peter Ezenwa(MFR) in 2018.
It states inter alia…”One significant thing I will say many people didn’t know is that the first indigenous airline that was to run in Nigeria was known as “STANDARD AIRLINE”.It was founded in 1966 by a company formed by Igwe Peter Ezenwa from Oba,and had on board,John Nwankwu from Abagana,Edward Ebo from Ezinifitte,(all from Anambra state),John Anyaehie from Nkwerre in Imo state,and lastly my very self Mbazulike Amaechi.
The five of us later acquired two brand new aircrafts,and had four pilots,namely;Unachievable,John Emma Ngwu and Felix Offor,who was to be the General Manager of the airline.
But just about the time for the take-off the crisis of the military takeover erupted in the North as the planes were on their way for delivery to us.In fact the bank handling the transaction was to allow the planes to be flown from the USA,but the news of the war broke out in 1967,the insurance company cabled for the cancellation of the deal as they will not be able to cover the risk cost of aircrafts being flown into war zone.
So,we asked the manufacturers to take the two aircrafts back to their country and hold on for six months with the hope of that the war will end within the requested time frame,but the war didn’t end as thought.We consequently asked for refund and they deducted some money and refunded the balance which was deposited at the London branch of African Continental Bank(ACB).
When the government took over the operations of ACB,we still hoped for the refund but unfortunately were disappointed that the Federal government took over the whole money and we lost everything.”
Further in line with our historical perspective,it will also be pertinent some of the later years reformists in the likes of Engr Onyereri and Harold Demuren who advertently sponsored some far reaching regulations that eventually steered the industry towards greater autonomy with the passage of the 2005 Civil Aviation Act,which I was also a prime participant of in my capacity as an Aviation sub chair in then House of Representatives.
As we mark this great century milestone,and with the clear evidential pathway set out by the current managers of the industry under the indomitable leadership of Honourable Minister, I do not see the sky posing any limitations as they say,but rather availing new vistas of limitless growth opportunities.
CONGRATULATIONS.
Hon Chidi Nwogu
Former member House of Representatives & presently Governing Council member
,African Aviation and Aerospace University,Abuja.
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