Football scandal: IG steps in

By Tony Ubani
As the world waits on Nigeria to unravel the culprits behind the ridiculous 79 -0 and 67 -0 scorelines recorded in two matches of the amateur League play-offs, the Nigeria Police have brought a new twist to the whole drama by distancing themselves from one of the Clubs – Police Machine FC which  beat Bubayaro FC 67 – 0.
“The team that is involved in that fantasy scoreline is not Police Machine Team. The Police Machine team is a brand name for the Police team. The one you people are referring as Police Machine team are Police FC from Yola. It is a rag-tag team in the state and cannot be said to be the Police Machine team”, CSP Frank Mba who is the deputy Force Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police Force said yesterday on our hotline.
He was asked about the investigation of the alleged match fixing  by the amateur teams during their play offs.
“The Police Machine team are actually topping their Nationwide League in Abuja and cannot be said to be involved in this basketful of goals.
All the same, the Police have initiated investigation on our own without waiting for anyone. But our investigation is limited because there are certain technical areas we cannot go into.
Our Inspector General, M. D. Abubakar is a passionate sports man and was highly involved in football. He talks, sleeps and dreams football and as such has directed the DIG and Commissioner of Police in the zone to look into the matter.
We really want to understand what happened because we are very uncomfortable with the scoreline. We want to also see if all the people in the Police team are police men.
If they are, it makes it easy for discipline. It is possible that as a rag-tag team, they can recruit people from here and there.  For the IGP, anyone involved in bringing the beautiful game of football into disrepute will not go un-punished’’, Mba said.

*IGP Abubakar

Asked if the Police have been contacted by the Nigeria Football Federation to investigate the scandal, Mba could not confirm.
Plateau United Feeders and Police Machine figured they needed a big win in the final round at an amateur tournament to outdo the other and earn promotion to Nigeria’s professional football leagues.
Plateau United scored a whopping 79 goals to nil against Akurba FC while Police Machines scored yet another cricket score of 76 – 0 over Bubayaro FC.
The Nigeria Football Federation termed the scores ‘’mind-boggling’’ while promising to bring the offenders to book.