I Hold Mr. President In High Esteem - Sani Lulu

Immediate past President of the Nigerian Football , NFF, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, has reacted angrily to reports credited to a board member of the Federation that he has no respect for the country’s leader, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Alhaji Abdullahi described the statement as spurious and a calculated attempt to bring him to ridicule and to score cheap political points.

He said contrary to the figment of the imagination of the NFF member and his mischief makers “I have full and unalloyed respect and loyalty for President Goodluck Jonathan. I hold the President in a very high esteem as my leader and the leader of more than 170 million Nigerians.”

 “It was out of my respect and admiration for the President that “even when the unlawful and illegal impeachment of the Board under my leadership took place in July 2010, I tried by all means to have audience with the President to explain my own side of the story, but my efforts were thwarted by the cabal that has been holding our football by the jugular.”

Alhaji Abdullahi added that: “As a responsible citizen, I was compelled to make my grievances known to him over my kangaroo removal, through public domain, with advertorial in some national dailies and other media.”

 “I hold the President in the highest esteem and respect and would never do anything or be party to anything that would undermine his authority or administration particularly having served in the public service for over 30 years during which I rose to the position of a Director where I served for eight years.” 

He went on: “I have consistently for over four years maintained calmness, without even going to court out of my respect for the President and as a loyal citizen of this country:

“ I felt that taking action against the NFF while we had the World Cup and other competitions on our hand would not be in the interest of the nation.

“Having waited patiently for all these while, the best time for me to speak and act is now with our team gone to the Brazil 2014 World Cup Finals.”

The former NFF President said “that is no better time than now for me to have my case revisited since another election into the NFF Board is around the corner.”

He concluded that he will give details of the N2.8billion his Board left in the coffers of the NFF at the appropriate time.