Our attention has been drawn to a clearly malicious story with a clear intent to malign the person of Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick by one Niyi Busari, using a backwater online blog he operates under the guise of being a journalist.
In the said publication he alleged that the former Delta state Sports Council and Delta state FA Chair had attempted to ruin the career of Ese Brume.
It is clear that Ms. Brume, like several other athletes who would go on to represent Delta state and Nigeria in international competitions, was discovered under the tenure of Mr. Amaju Pinnick as Chair of Delta Sports Council, a tenure that saw Delta rise to the pinnacle of Nigerian sports meets.
That Ms. Brume rose to prominence is no accident, as Mr. Pinnick had in put in place a broad based network of grassroots scouting teams that helped to unearth several gems including the likes of Blessing Okagbare amongst others.
That a so called journalist, would extract a purported statement by someone on a Whatsapp group chat and quote it for his bunch of lies masquerading as a news report, shows the lows that his like have taken the fourth estate of the realm to.
A statement made on a private group among colleagues cannot be published without clear consent of the author, if truly the person to whom it was attributed is the actual author of said claim.
Mr. Pinnick clearly has a track record of performance at every assignment he has ever engaged in, a track record that cuts across his private businesses and which has translated into his engagements within sports sector.
No doubt Pinnick has always brought a global viewpoint to his sporting engagements, which saw the unearthing of several stars from the Delta state sports system and even recently his clear position to the Nigerian home-based super eagles that he would no longer issue International Transfer Certificates to players seeking to travel to backwater leagues for football.
Today Nigerian football is recognized globally with our involvement in the key decision making bodies of international football, all in spite of the fact that his leadership has consistently had to deal with the activities of detractors, of which this Mr. Busari has been very key in spewing hateful and malicious reports against the person of Mr. Amaju Pinnick and his board members.
Recently the Nigerian home based players were taken for an international friendly match against Mexico, a first in the history of the game for local players, giving them needed exposure to the current trends in the round leather game.
It is clear that this most recent baseless tantrum masquerading in the name of journalism is a continuation in the web of lies, which have failed to hold back the leadership of Mr. Pinnick from reaching new heights during his time in office.
We challenge Mr. Busari and his paymasters to desist from further working against the interests of Nigerians and Nigeria by giving the leadership of Nigerian football a bad name, thereby giving the larger country a bad name as well hampering our chances of being given due participation at the highest echelons of football management internationally.
