Paul Chibuzor, Executive Secretary of Rangers International Football Club, Enugu is embroiled in financial scandals.Ozor Paul Chibuzor, Executive Secretary of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu, is currently in the eye of the storm. (Picture shows Chibuzor)
Apart from misappropriation of the finances of Rangers, Chibuzor grapples with allegations of stashing away funds realized from sale of some Rangers players to foreign club sides.
Part of the stashed funds is said to include over $350,000 (approximately N80 million). Four of the transferred players are listed as Uchebo Okechukwu (striker), Alex Nkuma (defender), John Chibuike (striker) and Abayi Chijioke (mid fielder). While Okechukwu and Nkuma were reportedly jointly sold for $165,000, Chijioke and Chibuike were transferred for $80,000 and 80,000 Euros respectively. In the Nigerian currency, the foregoing figures is put at over N70 million.
Interestingly, Chibuzor’s accusers are former players of Rangers, some of who, also, belong to the club’s Board of Management. Operating under the platform of Ex-Rangers International Footballers Association, the group, in a Press Release, dated August 27, 2009, asserted: “The transfer and sale of Rangers are couched in secrecy. A number of players have been sold to foreign clubs for $350,000 without any accountability to Rangers Board”.
The statement, signed by Luke Okpala and Boniface Uzoh, Chairman and Secretary respectively, accused the Executive Secretary (Chibuzor) of falling short of accountability and probity in his administration of Rangers.
This allegation was, partly, informed by Chibuzor’s alleged unauthorized advancement of a personal loan of N4 million to the club. Chibuzor, equally, reportedly secured another N1 million loan from a Clerical Officer on Grade Level 6 in the club named as Sunday Eze. The contention here is that the Executive Secretary, Chibuzor, had gone about securing these alleged fraudulent loans without the consent of the club’s Management Board.
“Has the Executive Secretary followed due process and is this not a well-thought out plan to defraud the club? How did a Grade Level 06 officer (Sunday Eze) in Rangers raise a loan of N1 million if they are not practicing financial laundering?” the association quizzed.
Aside funds from sale of players and the questionable loans, the Executive Secretary stands accused of misappropriating a life-line of N150 million extended to the Flying Antelopes by the government of Barrister Sullivan Chime.
The N150 million, released to the club in the first week of August, was meant to clear the players’ sign-on fees, pay entitlements to the club’s officials, as well as recruit new players. Our correspondent was told that while Chibuzor has paid some of the players their sign-on fees, he was, at press time, yet to settle the officials, a situation that has been generating ripples.
That is not all! The Executive Secretary allegedly transferred N14 million (from the N150 million) to his fixed personal account in one of the new generation banks in Enugu. Although Chibuzor reportedly claimed that his travel to the United States, early August, was to see his family members, his traducers insist that he went to siphon out the funds of Rangers (he had stolen) in foreign banks.
Also, part of the grouse of ex-Rangers is that Chibuzor, because he lacks corporate experience and qualification to run the club, has been recruiting and registering poor quality and ‘clubless’ players. And despite the fact that those players could not make the team, Chibuzor reportedly pays them higher percentage of sign-on fees to the detriment of the regular players.
The Executive Secretary is, equally, on the dot for approving the representation of Rangers Football Club in both the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and Nigeria Premier League (NPL) by the ill-qualified duo of Sunday Eze (the Clerical Officer) and Forster Chime (an editorial staff of Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) who doubles as Rangers Public Relations Officer (PRO)
The ex-Rangers players are, in the main, angry that Chibuzor, who they described as ‘a former taxi driver in USA’, has been running Rangers like his personal estate, in the process of which he has, even, grown bigger than the Management Board, which is the highest decision making organ of the club.
For instance, Chibuzor successfully snubbed a suspension order slammed on him by the Management Board, headed by the transport mogul, Samuel Maduka Onyishi, on March 31 this year. Chibuzor’s suspension, ostensibly, followed his alleged innumerable misdemeanors, but he brags that it is only Governor Chime who has the powers to sanction him, not the Onyishi Board. Other members of the Rangers Board, who signed the resolution containing Chibuzor’s suspension, include Kenneth Boardman, Ossy Rockefeller Ogboso, D.N.D Onyeachor, Davidson Owumi, Dominic Nwobodo and Achunike Mgbatogu.
And apart from the fact that he sat tight in office, refusing to, as directed by the Board, hand over to the club’s team manager, Walter Udoji, Chibuzor reportedly played a leading role in the recent controversial ouster of Coach Christian Chukwu from the club. Intriguingly, Chibuzor, also, sat back to sack some other staff of Rangers, and, subsequently, placed advertorials in the newspapers calling for applications into their respective offices.
However, Chibuzor is said to derive his ‘maximum powers’ in Rangers from Jide Chime, younger brother to Governor Chime. Jide it was who allegedly used his influence to halt his suspension by the Board. Jide, a senior lecturer at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) and, in fact, the defacto Chairman of Governor Chime’s Total Mandate political outfit, is, also, fingered as having ensured that the Board’s letter conveying Chibuzor’s suspension never got to the governor for accent. It is popularly held that the letter was hidden away to render the suspension null and void.
Chibuzor, however, denied the allegations against him, saying they were targeted at smearing his image. Calling the bluff of his accusers, the embattled Executive Secretary maintained that he is not, in the least, bothered so long as he satisfies Governor Chime. Boasting that he regularly briefs the governor of his activities, Chibuzor vowed not to allow the detractors to derail his good intentions for the club.
Chibuzor denied ever selling off Rangers players as alleged. He, nonetheless, admitted, in a chat with THEWEEK, that his management sold only one of the players, John Chibuike, to a foreign club. He, also, denied advancing a personal loan of N4 million to Rangers, as well as having procured another N1 million from Eze.
“I am not bothered by these baseless allegations. The governor knows everything I do in this club. I am accountable to him, and will not allow detractors to derail our good intentions for Rangers”, the embattled Executive Secretary blurted.
As it were, the fortunes of Rangers, one time foremost football club side in Nigeria, have continued to dwindle over the years. The club, at the moment, occupies the 6th position on the league table. Although Rangers has been lucky enough to, often, narrowly escape relegation, it is tear-evoking to learn that Rangers International Football Club has never won any trophy since 1983. Quite incredible!
And unless the Chime administration jettisons nepotism and sub-ethnic considerations, and ensure the running of Rangers like a club side, as opposed to the current ‘parapo’ style of handling the team, Rangers will, for sure, continue to toddle along in an effort to catch up with its contemporaries in the round leather game.
Will Governor Chime save Rangers? The time is now!
Culled from THEWEEK, a Nigerian weekly news magazine
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