The Nigeria Basketball Accountability Group (NBAG) said the recent report alleging the embezzlement of $2.2million of Kwese Sponsorship money by the former NBBF President and now Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar, is blatant falsehood and fake news.
The group, in a release said the allegation was the machination and handiwork of scammers in Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) determined to foist an obnoxious constitution and buy over voters in a fraudulent election they attempted to organise in Benin City, Edo State, on October 30, 2021.
The group noted: “The NBBF under the former president transparently managed sponsorship deals with DStv (2010-2016), Zenith Bank (2009-2016) and Kwese (2016-2017).
“His tenure recorded the first victory of any African team or any non-American or non-European team and laid the solid foundation for the elevation of the game of basketball in Nigeria both locally and internationally when the Nigerian Men’s team qualified for the London 2012 Olympics through the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).
“This was followed by the first ever victory at the Men’s African Championship (Afrobasket) in Tunisia in 2015 which also qualified Nigeria to its second Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The group further posited “Why has neither DSTV, Zenith, Kwese nor the Ministry of Youth and Sports management reported any wrong doing to any competent court or investigative agency empowered to investigate and unravel such matters during that entire period?
“The simple answer is that there was no wrong-doing in NBBF management of any kind in the period between 2009 – 2017.”
 said the recent report alleging the embezzlement of $2.2million of Kwese Sponsorship money){kind=link}