Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the recovery of public property, Okoi Obono Obla, on Tuesday confirmed that the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was grilled by his officers.
Obla confirmed this in an exclusive telephone interview with 99.9 Kiss FM Sports show in Abuja.
“The President of NFF was interrogated by our men, you know that we have several petitions against the NFF and we are inviting all those whose name was mentioned,” he said.
“We have capable hands that will do everything possible to get to the end of the matter; if necessary they will be charged to Court.
“Our power is derived from executive order 6. We have combined operatives drawn from all the anti-graft agencies including the Nigeria police, EFCC, ICPC, NIA and the likes.”
Obla also claimed maintained that there will be no sacred cow in this probe, stressing that Pinnick, whose name has been mentioned severally in the course of the investigation, will be called up should investigators deem it necessary.
“It is not in my chairmanship that anyone mentioned will be excluded,” Obla insisted.
“The investigators have their way of doing things, I don’t interfere and I can assure you that anybody whose name has been mentioned will be investigated.”
Pinnick’s invitation by the panel was received at the NFF secretariat on Thursday with aides claiming he was out of the country only for the NFF boss to attend several public functions locally thereafter.
The General Secretary of the NFF Mohammed Sanusi had written to the Panel asking for more time in order to finish the AFCON qualifiers game against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa this weekend before honouring the Panel’s invitation.
There are indications that they are however pointing accusing fingers to the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung for engineering the investigations.
More officials are also due to appear before the panel this week.
