A three man panel has been despatched to Salvador, Brazil, to investigate allegations of abuse of Personal Identification Cards known as PVCs or accreditation cards.
This followed a mail dated August 12 and signed by Lenny Abbey, head of NOC Relations and Services, which read …”It has come our attention that there has been abuse of accreditation by the Nigerian Football team. Rio 2016 Accreditation Department reported that upon arrival in Manaus on August 4, 2016, the team claimed that they all lost their PVCs and requested accreditation management to re-issue the cards. On the 8th of August, members of the team came to Sao Paolo and claimed they had lost their cards in Brasilia and requested a re-print. The security department has also informed that they had found PVCs that have been laminated with a plain laminator and have been used to access football hotels and venues where there is no electronic access control. Using cancelled accreditation or counterfeiting accreditation by laminating PVCs to grant access to unaccredited support staff, family and friends is unacceptable and goes against the Rio 2016 and IOC policies and rules .We count on the support of the Nigeria Olympic Committee to rectify this issue immediately and respect the accreditation quota allocated to the NOC as per IOC accreditation guidelines. The IOC has been notified. Please note that measures shall be taken should this issue continue”.
Minister of Youth and Sports has despatched the Chief de mission Mr Chinyeaka Ohaa, his deputy, Engr Emeka Onyeama and Secretary-General of the NOC, Tunde Popoola, to identify the 25 officially accredited players and officials to avoid an international embarrassment by the security department of the organising Committee of the games.
“I have asked the three men to verify the players with official accreditation and remove the rest from the hotel and camp so that we can report back to the IOC that we have complied. Our football federation came with excess players and officials but we have taken steps to rectify it. We don’t want any of our players to be found in possession of the counterfeit PVCs” Dalung said.
DREAM TEAM SHEATH SWORD.
Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, says all issues arising from the players’ protest two days ago have been resolved.
According to Barrister Dalung, the players’ grievances had to do with match bonuses, camp allowance and the 5 months’ salaries owed Chief Coach, Samson Siasia.
The minister said that the remaining camp allowance for 11days was paid yesterday while the team is not entitled to match bonus during games.
“I spoke with the captain of the team John Mikel Obi and I explained to him that match bonuses are not paid to players except during the World Cup or Africa Cup of nations but not in Olympic or Commonwealth games. This is their first appearance at the Olympics so the players may not know that they don’t pay match bonus at games.We have paid all outstanding camp allowance for the Rio Games qto the players so we owe them nothing. On the salaries of Siasia, the federation has admitted that they owe him for 5months. He was owed before he agreed to take the team to Atlanta so, making it an issue now after qualifying for the quarterfinals is not in the interest of the country. I have appealed to the coach and the players to put the country first before personal interest. All other issues that need to be addressed will definitely be addressed after the Olympics” the minister said.The players have since resolved to allow peace reign and focus on their game.
