Nigerian Concord Newspaper Opinion
The crisis rocking the Lobi Stars of Makurdi seems to be coming to its end as the people behind all the sponsored allegations, negative media reports and protests are being exposed as a result of their naivety and inability to prove their allegations against the Vice Chairman/CEO of the club, Mr. Dominic Iorfa and Deputy Governor Benson Abounu.
For the sake of clarification, the trio of Paul Tion, Austin Tyowua and Gabriel Ogwuche are behind all the troubles in the Benue state-owned football club but our finding showed that Gabriel Ogwuche had recently repented and apologized with a promise to stop making false allegations on the CEO. This leaves Paul Tion and Austin Tyowua in the blackmail business.
This morning as this Newspaper was about to release the latest discovery about Lobi Stars as we promised to do two weeks ago, a media report posted under an unverified name on Facebook (Hilary Agber) popped up, and it was full of damning allegations against Dominic Iorfa and the deputy Governor of Benue state, Engineer Benson Abounu who is the Chairman of the Club.
It was while the allegations were being x-rayed that it was discovered that the duo of Paul Tion and Austin Tyowua are the ones behind the Facebook post under a pseudo account named Hilary Agber.
Let’s ask, what do Paul and Austin want to gain from pulling down the football club of their own state? They had been benefiting from the club in the past so why are they hell bent on pulling it down?
Recall that last week, the Club embarked on staff verification exercise to be able to address complains by some protesters that they were unjustly sacked by Dominic Iorfa without their benefits paid.
Some people had gone to the Benue People’s House in Makurdi to protest that it was Iorfa that sacked them.
Meanwhile, Engineer Benson Abounu had on March 21, 2022 while announcing the resignation of Tama Aondafa, informed the public that the entire Management Team of Lobi Stars had been dissolved.
In his speech, Abounu stated that the decision to disband the former team was taken by stakeholders after due considerations over the abysmal performance of the club in their last five matches, noting that the decision was also to save the club from relegation. That was before Iorfa came in.
Abounu said: “Instead of rising, the team has been going down, from 13th position to 14th, down to the 17th position and today, the team is on 19th position on the Nigerian Premier League Table, If allowed to continue that way, the club is most likely to be relegated”,
The club Chairman further explained that the management of the club was dissolved so as to allow the new Vice Chairman start on a new slate, adding that he was expected to bring in his experience and knowledge and management of the round leather game to bear in steering the club up the ladder.
In their allegation this morning, Paul and Austin Tyowua who are hiding under the fake name (Hilary Agber) falsely accused the deputy Governor of being compromised hence his inability to do the needful on the issue of Lobi Stars.
Our findings however showed that the accusers are looking for attention and also want to embarrass the deputy Governor whom this Newspaper’s findings proved has been doing his best to make sure that Lobi Stars Club is best managed. Nigerian Concord Newspaper gathered that Engineer Abounu has never soiled his hands when it comes to the management of the club.
It was also uncovered that the accusers are only trying to make the world believe that there is a cold war between Governor Samuel Ortom and his deputy hence their latest plan to drag him (Abounu) into their fight against Dominic Iorfa. Why haven’t they mentioned Abounu as a compromised person since they started this battle with Iorfa few weeks ago?
It’s just an unproven allegation against the deputy Governor because his accusers have failed in their allegation to state the exact way he has been compromised as the chairman of the club.
Our findings showed that the deputy Governor had called for several peace-making meetings to resolve all the crises in Lobi Stars but records show that the trio of Tion, Ogwuche and Tyowua have failed to come forward with any document to prove the allegations that they were unjustly sacked by Iorfa or that they are being owed.
Our investigators also learnt that Paul Tion and Austin Tyowua had few days ago written Dominic Iorfa to pay them one month salary in lieu of notice so they could relocate back to Abuja. Haba!
With this message to Iorfa, one will ask if these people are even sure that they were properly employed by the Club.
Why haven’t they come to meet the deputy Governor who had called on them many times to come with their documents to show that they were genuinely employed as staff of the Club if they are sure that Iorfa sacked them unjustly?
Are Iorfa’s accusers interested in getting a month salary or they want the club relegated by making false allegations against the club and the CEO?
We had reported how the accusers asked officials of the LMC, CAF and NFF that Lobi Stars should be relegated over allegations of match fixing which they haven’t been able to prove when they were asked to turn in an official petition with their names, addresses and phone numbers.
“On the allegation of non payment of salaries after verification, the truth of the matter is that after the exercise, it was discovered that 80 percent of the appointment letters tendered were forged. And the claim that some staff have no appointment letters but are taking salaries from the club is also being investigated by a committee that has been set up to look into the discrepancies in the appointment letters.
“Once the committee concludes its assignment, those who have been cleared, would be paid without delay. So, this has nothing to do with lack of money to pay those who appeared for the verification exercise” an official of the club who doesn’t want to be mentioned said.
To be continued