The Nigeria Premier Football League board is set to launch an investigation into the betting and match fixing allegations which is currently rocking former league champions and relegation-threatened side Lobi Stars, The PUNCH reports.
Lobi Stars media officer, Emmanuel Ujah, accused their players of match-fixing during an interview with Today 95.1FM Port Harcourt, while also expressing his frustration with the present position of the club on the log.
“So, there’s this unwholesome practice that have been going on in Lobi. They have been betting at Bet9ja (you know we can’t hide anything again), fixing matches,” Ujah said.
“They’ll ask people to bet that they’re scoring us two goals today so go and bet. We told the club chairman to dissolve the team and let the people go and bring other players in the second stanza of the league, those (he) can control.
“Even Amokachi (Daniel) in our first meeting told us that the players and officials are betting.
“The present management said ‘ok let’s give them the benefit of the doubt’ and that benefit of the doubt we’re paying dearly for it now.”
One of the players of the club, however, dismissed the allegations as baseless and blamed the management’s infighting for the team’s misfortune this season.
“Does he think the players are happy to go to the field and lose? They should check themselves. All these problems started when they began fighting over positions at the club,” the player, who pleaded anonymity, said.
In the wake of the accusations, the Chief Operating Officer of the NPFL, Davidson Owumi, said the board had swung into action by launching an internal inquest into the matter.
“We don’t want to give credence or credibility to those utterances without evidence so we will invite the person that granted that interview. We have moved ahead by putting structures in place to help us detect these things,” Owumi told The PUNCH.
“We are doing an internal inquest to make sure we get to the bottom of this without being sentimental because it’s an issue that is very sensitive.”
Lobi Stars are winless in their last 14 matches, with their last win coming as far back as December 14, when they beat Plateau United 1-0.
Their poor run of form has left them battling to stay up in the league, as they are currently bottom of the table with 24 points after 31 games.
Off the field, the club have been plagued by issues of coaching and facilities.
They have played under five coaches this season, with Baba Ganaru being the last manager to quit before Tony Bulus took over.
The former champions have also switched their base from Lafia to Bauchi and now Enugu in the current campaign.
