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President Bola Tinubu has announced Mallam Shehu Dikko as the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC).
The appointment of Dikko, who was previously the vice-president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Chairman of League Management Company, was announced in a press statement issued on Wednesday by the Presidency.
His appointment came shortly after the President scrapped the Ministry of Sports and announced that the National Sports Commission should take over.
The statement issued by the Presidency reads in part: “The immediate winding up of the Ministry of Sports Development and the transfer of its functions to the National Sports Commission in order to develop a vibrant sports economy.
“The appointment of Shehu Dikko as Chairman of the National Sports Commission;
“The President thanked the outgoing members of the Federal Executive Council for their service to the nation while wishing them the best in their future endeavours.
“He then charged the newly appointed ministers as well as their reassigned colleagues to see their appointment as a call to serve the nation.
“He added that all appointees must understand the administration’s eagerness and determination to set Nigeria on the path to irreversible growth and invest the best of their abilities into the actualisation of the government’s priorities.”
During his tenure at NFF barely two years ago, Shehu Dikko was accused of corruption and misappropriation of funds by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
This made the anti-corruption agency announce the seizure of some of the properties owned by Shehu Dikko in 2022.
“The Commission is of the opinion based on the aforementioned investigation that this immovable property owned by Mr Shehu Dikko is excessive having regard to his present and past emoluments and all other circumstances,” the ICPC said in its statement.
But Dikko denied this allegation, accusing ICPC of subjecting him to a media trial.
“This unfair media trial has been going on since 2019 when the ICPC published notices in newspapers for seizure of my client’s and his colleagues’ assets without any court order to back the forfeiture of my client’s assets nor inviting our clients to explain,” Mohammed Sani Katu, Dikko’s lawyer, told BBC Sport Africa.
He continued: “We immediately engaged the ICPC and they invited our client to provide documents on the properties and he honoured and provided all proofs to show that all his assets are legitimate.
“Fundamentally, the fact is that my client own the properties long before he joined NFF in 2015.”
Katu said the case should have been dismissed, saying, “In March 2020, the ICPC went to court to apply to withdraw the case as they were unable to provide any evidence on the properties that they say are illegally acquired.
“The court duly struck out the matter on 4 March 2020. This ought to have ended all issue.
“The court clearly affirmed that all the properties were owned long before our client got to the NFF and no substantive facts or prima facie evidence were supplied.”
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