The Senate Committee Chairman on Sports, Senator Obinna Ogba says he will still vie for the state Football Association chairmanship position which he has occupied for eight years.
Ogba, a Former Vice President of the Nigerian Football Federation made the declaration in a telephone chat with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Abakaliki.
The senator, who was re-elected into the senate during the last general elections, said that his leadership of the state’s FA has impacted positively on football in the state and this necessitated his desire to continue in that position.
He said: “We have to consolidate on the achievements on ground especially with the revamping of the sports sector by the Governor David Umahi led-administration.”
He debunked the notion that he had abandoned his privately-owned club Ebonyi United FC, runners up in the 2019 state federation cup final, decided on April 27.
He said: “I registered the club for the just concluded state federation cup, provided kits and other logistics while offsetting the salaries of the officials and players.
“How then can people say I abandoned the club as one should not reply to every insinuation.”
Supporting Ogba’s assertion, Ikechukwu Itumo, Team manager of the Ebonyi United FC club, said the senator had been doing his best to run the club.
Itumo said: “You know that politicians who took part in the just-concluded general elections spent lots of money and would need time to stabilise financially.
“I believe that when things normalise, those who are saying that he abandoned the club will speak differently.”
Itumo noted that the club had learnt its lessons from its federation cup loss to Cynosure FC of Abakaliki, promising that noticeable flaws would be corrected before the national stage of the competition.
He said: “The officials for instance, released the players’ feeding allowance late before the final and we are happy to notice these flaws presently, before the national competition.”
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