The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has denied allegations making the rounds that its officials shared some monies donated to the Men and Women Basketball Teams ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Recall that a press statement circulated recently in the media including a video clip alleging that officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development shared some monies donated to D’Tigers and D’Tigress, while they threatened to shun further call ups for national assignments.
But the Ministry in a statement signed by its Permanent Secretary, Ismaila Abubakar and made available to Blueprint Sport clarified that the monies totaling $230,000 (about N115million) donated to the Basketball teams by the Banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the Ministry is intact in the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Abubakar added that only the 12 female Team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers, noting that the Ministry was waiting for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied so that the processing of payments can be one-off as requested by the CBN.
Part of the statement read, “The Ministry has requested the CBN to commence the processing of the payment to the Female Basketball Players immediately. The Male will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied.”
D’Tigers, D’Tigress’ money intact in CBN – Sports Ministry
