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Kida warns clubs, players against dealing with illegal bodies

By Editor
04 August 2017   |   3:48 am
In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chimezie Asiegbu, players and club managements in the Nigerian league system were warned to desist from dealing with any other entity or any other organ without the approval of the present Board.

Eyes on the diadem… members of senior women national team sweating it out in preparation for the forthcoming Afrobasket Championship, tagged Mali 2017.

In what appears like a move to take full control of every basketball activity in the country, new president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Ahmadu Musa Kida, has warned clubs, players and stakeholders to be wary of people masking under the umbrella of the NBBF to perpetrate nefarious activities.

In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chimezie Asiegbu, players and club managements in the Nigerian league system were warned to desist from dealing with any other entity or any other organ without the approval of the present Board.

This, he said, became necessary following the election into the NBBF board on June 13 and the inauguration of that same board by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung on July 21, 2017 to administer Basketball in Nigeria.

“You will recall that the election onto the board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) was held in Abuja on June 13, 2017. This election ushered in a new leadership with Engineer Ahmadu Musa Kida and Babatunde Ogunade as President and Vice President, respectively. This board was inaugurated on July 21, 2017 and is mandated to administer Basketball in Nigeria from 2017 to 2021.

“For the sake of our players, clubs and state basketball associations, the direction of the new board is to continue with the programmes, which started before the inauguration of the present board, while hand over activities will be concluded between the former board and the present one. To date, no particular effort has been made by the former board to handover to the present one,” it said.

It advised, “all concerned are therefore to deal with the present NBBF board in all matters related to basketball. In this regard, any correspondence which does not emanate from the Secretariat of the NBBF with the signature of the undersigned, Chimezie Asiegbu, Secretary General of the NBBF, should not be honored.”

Meanwhile, Kida has reaffirmed his commitment to players’ welfare during his tenure. Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National stadium immediately after watching the training session of the senior women’s national team, who are preparing for the 2017 Afrobasket competition in Mali, Kida described Nigerian players both home and abroad as his personal clients as the NBBF president.

“One thing I have always maintained is that the players are my personal clients and preferred customers as the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation. They are the people who I swore an oath to make sure I create the best enabling environment to exhibit their talents.”

He lamented the hard decision of the federation to decamp the Junior D’Tigress, who had been in camp for about two weeks in preparation for the FIBA Africa U-16 women’s championship in Mozambique under the watchful eyes of the team’s assistant coach, Tony Nelson.

He said the move became necessary when it was obvious that the team would not be able to participate at the competition, which will start tomorrow following the federation’s inability to complete the team’s registration before the deadline by FIBA Africa.

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