'It's wrong for Mikel Obi and Siasia to collect $390k gift' - Senator Ogba says, as senate may probe roles of Dalung and NOC

The Nigerian senate may probe the minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung and the Nigeria Olympic committee (NOC) on their roles over the poor performance of the country’s Team Nigeria contingent in Rio 2016.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Joe Obinna Ogba (PDP, Ebonyi), who was also part of the country's delegation to Rio says Mikel Obi & Samson Siasia were wrong to collect the $390k given to them by Japanese surgeon Dr. Katsuya Takasu, saying no one's aware of the source of money.

“My committee intends to invite the NOC to come and brief us on the Olympics. Apart from the late arrival of our athletes’ kits, you can see even our national anthem at the opening ceremony was the wrong one. So, all these, we are going to find out what happened when we resume,” Ogba said during an interview with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.. 

“I could recall that my Committee invited the Minister of Sports three times to tell us the level of his Ministry’s preparation, particularly on funding and he assured us that funds had been released.” 

“Out of curiosity, we asked the Minister of Finance and she confirmed that funds had already been released to Sports Ministry only to discover that it was not so. Is that the change Buhari-administration promised?, ” he asked. 

“I am speaking in my personal capacity that it was wrong for our players to have collected the money. I don’t think it was nice for our country to accept such money given the happenings around the world now. Money is good but it’s not every money that comes your way that you collect. So, I associate myself fully with the President of the Nigeria Football Federation,” he noted.