Anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has described the verdict of the Ethics Committee of FIFA and subsequent ban of Nigeria’s Dr. Amos Adamu as a welcome development.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi told Brila FM in Lagos that they have looked forward to the verdict since Dr. Adamu was provisionally suspended over the cash for vote scandal about a month ago.
He said that immediately they heard the news that FIFA had banned the Ogbomosho-born football administrator, the EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri instructed officials handling the matter to liaise with FIFA to get the full report of its Ethics Committee so they can begin their own investigation of him.
“It is however unfortunate that Adamu has refused to return home since the issue broke out and we (EFCC) declared interest in the matter,”Babafemi said, adding that the EFCC does not believe Adamu will want to abandon his country because of this case.
The FIFA Ethics Committee, under the chairmanship of Claudio Sulser of Switzerland Thursday found Dr. Adamu and five others guilty of breaching various articles of the FIFA Code of Ethics and banned them from all football activities worldwide for periods between one and four years.
Apart from Adamu, three others are Africans while the fifth and sixth persons are Ahongalu Fusimalohi who is the General Secretary of the Tonga FA and Reynald Temarii, FIFA vice-president from Tahiti respectively.
The other Africans are Slim Aloulou, a Tunisian and chairman of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber as well as a member of the FIFA Players’ Status Committee, Amadou Diakite, a Malian and member of the FIFA Referees Committee and Botswana’s Ismael Bhamjee and honorary member of CAF. Bhamjee was some years ago banned from FIFA over illegal sales of World Cup tickets allocated to his country.
Adamu was banned for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss Francs while Temarii was banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss Francs. Like Adamu, Aloulou’s fine is 10,000 Swiss Francs but he will stay off football for two years.
Though Bhamjee had the same fine of 10,000 Swiss Fancs like Adamu, he got the longest ban of four years while Diakite had equal sanction with Adamu, who incidentally was until Thursday the president of WAFU, the football governing body of West Africa.
Ironically Dr Amos, who has continually claimed he is innocent, issued a statement condemning the verdict of the Ethics Committee hours before it made its verdict public and has said he was going to appeal the judgement.
Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/adamu%E2%80%99s-ban-a-welcome-devt-efcc/
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