The fire that engulfed the Nigerian Football Federation headquarters also called the Glasshouse in Abuja has been described as a deliberate act of sabotage by insiders.
The allegation comes from none other than the Vice President of the NFF, Mike Umeh.
Umeh told reporters, “A lot of corruption is going on in the Nigeria Football Federation. The [fire incident] is an act of sabotage.”
“The meeting held [at the NFF Secretariat on Tuesday], we were not part of it and we did not agree with it. Nobody can perpetuate himself in power. It is not done.
“They are just buying time. We have to hold our elections on the 26th of this month. If they like let them burn the whole of Abuja we must hold our election.
“Of course it could be an act of sabotage if not what kind of fire (outbreak) is this? This happened during working hours. It did not happen during the night when we can say it was as a result of power failure (surge) during the night,” he said of the fire that was reported to have started from the office of the Accountant.
“I understand one of our big men was here watching the fire burning. The information I got was that the General Secretary was here watching the fire burning,” Umeh said.
Speaking on the incident, a former NFF board member, Victor Baribote, said the security agencies and staff of the NFF had a lot of explaining to do to Nigerians.
“The truth is that both the security agencies and the staff on duty have a lot of things to tell Nigerians because this is not a restaurant where this type of fire can just rage without anybody doing something to contain it.
“Even as I don’t want to apportion any blame on anybody yet, but coming at a time when people were calling for a probe and people needed documents, then it needs to be investigated because it means that there is something fishy,” Baribote observed.