Ahead of the June 13 elective congress of the Kwara State Football Association, some football stakeholders in the State have queried the prices of the intent forms released by the Electoral committee.
In a statement released by the committee, the price of intent form for the Chairmanship position was fixed for three hundred thousand naira (N300,000) Vice Chairman, two hundred thousand naira( N200,000) and board member one hundred thousand naira (N100,000).
According to the committee, the prices were fixed in view of the logistics of the election which is scheduled to take place at Kaiama local government.
It also noted that the purchase of the form will be done at the Alhaji Usman Mustapha Football House Kwara State Stadium Complex, Ilorin with contestants paying for their forms in cash.
Reacting to the development, Oluwafemi Adeyemi, a member of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria(SWAN) Kwara State Chapter, noted that the state has the highest charges for the sale of intent forms for candidates citing other states like Lagos, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Oyo States where the price for intent forms were lower than that of Kwara.
He noted that for Lagos State, Football Association Chairmanship position form was fixed for N200,000, vice Chairman; N150,000 and board member, N100,000. In Nasarawa, Ekiti, and Kaduna Chairmanship forms are sold for N100,000, Vice Chairman; N70,000 and board member, N50, 000 respectively.
In Oyo State, the form for the Chairmanship position was pegged at N150,000 , Vice Chairman at N100,000 and board member N75,000.
“No Bank transfer, it must be paid in cash. Nothing like government policy in kwara FA on cashless policy, the principals are above the government policy, EFCC, ICPC Monitoring,” he queried.
“Use these five states as a case study, you will agree with me there’s a problem in the Kwara State FA Election, which requires necessary attention with immediate effect. Even Lagos commercial city of economy doesn’t sell form for N300,000.”
Another football stakeholder, who is the former Chairman of Ilorin West Local Football Council, Jimoh Yar’adua Yahaya said that it’s an attempt to discourage other contestants.
“The N300,000 was one of the verbal scripts to be acted upon. It is an attempt to discourage those that will contest. I remembered vividly that such an act was done during the local council election when the money to buy forms was raised beyond the contestant’s capacity. But alert, no contestants bought the form until the display of another verbal script was released to reduce the payment to buy the form.
He continued, “You can now see that there is no genuine resolution that the Committees are acting upon. I used the local council elections as a study case, I watched all the proceedings with keen interest so nobody can convince me that the coming FA elections scheduled to take place in Kaiama will be free and fair. Don’t be surprised to see act two in display because of this criticism and baptism on N300,000.”
Also reacting, Suleiman Ayinla said Secretary of the Electoral committee who also doubles as the Secretary of the Association doesn’t have statutory responsibility to deal with Cash especially one that is against the Nigerian Law.
“I will advise the Kwara FA Secretary who also doubles as the Secretary of the Electoral Committee to be smart. He has been designated to receive cash that may exceed 5Million naira if many people obtain form.”
He further said, “That is money laundering! A Criminal offence that may land him in Jail if EFCC is alerted. If he’s not smart, he will be left to his fate by those cooking this criminal act.
“As FA Secretary and Electoral Committee too, he has no statutory responsibility to deal with Cash especially one that is against the Nigerian Law. if I will borrow him my 10 Kobo, if anybody comes with cash, snap and keep evidence,” he opined
Electoral Committee Chairman reacts
When contacted by The Informant247, the Chairman of the Electoral committee, Rtd FIFA Emmanuel Obafemi said the choice of the prices was necessary due to the venue of the Election.
“Kwara FA have decided that their election will take place in Kaiama. The logistics of moving people to Kaiama even the electoral committee members is enormous.
“They will pay for the hotel, accommodate, transport and feed us and it has to be borne by the people who are going to be elected. The State FA has constituted this committee and we have to be responsible for this election.
“We sat down and we deliberated and we note that Kwara FA has no Kobo in its purse, at least that’s what we were told and so we had to sit down and charge.”
Speaking on the charges in other states, he argued that most of the States noted were likely going to have their elections held within their state capital, and might not need to incur more expenses on the logistics.
“Some of these States are likely going to hold the elections in their state capital, and logistics is almost zero as they will only be responsible for taking care of the electoral and the appeal committee
“If the Oyo State decides to charge even #20, it’s because they are going to do it in Ibadan but here they are taking us to Kaiama.”
‘Choice of Kaiama, not our fault’
Obafemi pointed out that the choice of Kaiama is not the fault of the Electoral committee as it was the choice of Congress of the Kwara FA.
“It is not the fault of the electoral committee it’s the congress of Kwara FA that agreed to do the election there and that”.
Reacting to the purchase of form and payment of cash at the FA Secretariat, he argued that it was the only available means for the committee to deal with the contestants as opening of account for the purpose of the election might not be possible due to the timeframe.
He inferred that the NFF election that took place in Benin applied the same method where all the contestants paid in cash.
“Between now and June 13 that we are going to do the election,we can’t open an account.
“Also, we cannot pay money into Kwara FA account because the money is not Kwara FA money- it’s for the election and mere fact that the incumbent chairman is contesting, we can’t put money in that account because it can disrupt our programme and we will not be able to do anything.
“Everybody will pay cash and take their receipts,” Concluded the chairman, who promised a free, fair and credible election.