Reps Accuse CBN Of Delaying $230,000 Payment To D’ Tigress

The Chairman House Committee on Sports, Olumide Osoba, has blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria for delaying the payment of funds belonging to the Nigerian female basketball team, the D’Tigress.

Osoba said CBN’s insistence in paying both the men and female basketball teams at the same time was the genesis of the delay in payment of the allowances to the athletes.

Osoba who revealed this on Friday disclosed that out of the $230,000 claimed by the D’Tigress, only $114,000 has been paid to the female team.

The tigress had in a viral video accused officials of the Nigerian Basketball Federation of the team the golden handshake with the President after they emerged winners of the Afrobasket champions.

Ify Ibekwe, a D’Tigress player had said that they were owed $75,000 by the NBBF, $24,000 by the Sports ministry for the Tokyo grant, and a $100,000 for donations made by Zenith Bank, Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTCo).

Osoba admitted that the protest was a national embarrassment, but denied the knowledge of the $24,000 grant claimed by the female team.

He said, “All the athletes that were adopted individually were given their funds and they used that for their preparation for the olympics.

“It was unfortunate that the team, the players did not make their account details available at the time when they would have been able to get those funds. That was the main problem that we had.

“The thing is that funds that were meant for the Olympics preparation was $230,000, $114,000 for the female and $116,000 for the male. Those funds could have been paid when they were meant to be paid because the CBN insisted on having all their accounts.

“That was when the problem really started. The CBN said it wanted to pay all 24 players at the same time. Maybe you could invite the CBN to explain why they decided to pay all 24 players at the same time.

“The girls were owed $114,000, they have been paid those funds, unfortunately those girls have refused to acknowledge payment.

“I got people to call them continuously to tell them to confirm they have been paid and they refused to confirm payment until probably three days after, which I find very unfortunate.

“They came out with the viral video, it was very embarrassing and when they got paid, I thought immediately they will say they have been paid $9,500 each for the adopting a team which they didn’t do.”

The D’Tigress had in a statement maintained that they will not receive part payments from the government.

But Osoba said, “What we were investigating was the $114,000 and the $73, 000 the allegation that they were owed. We got the former team manager who wrote a petition and we requested for that petition and we realized that the girls have $59,000 in the $73,000.

He said a directive has been issued for the payment of the outstanding to be made in four weeks time.