Bonus committee won’t interfere with NFF - Oshuntokun

Akin Oshuntokun, a member of the committee to investigate the match bonus row in the Super Eagles, said that the committee would not interfere with the Nigeria Football Federation’s job.

The body was set up by the Sports minister, Bolaji Abdulahi to unearth the cause of a recent bonus row in the Super Eagles after their World Cup 2014 qualifier against Namibia.

[caption id="attachment_403610" align="alignright" width="250"] Akin Oshuntokun[/caption]

According to Oshuntokun, who was a former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the panel will only abide by its terms of reference.

He said that the issue on ground was not complicated for the committee to handle or for Nigerians to see their job as clashing with that of the NFA.

“I don’t understand what people mean by `government interfe-rence. Govern-ment interference in football is not an end in its self; it depends on the purpose that interference is serving.

If the government provides a plane to take Nigerian players to New York, is that a bad interference?

So, it is what that interference means and what it seeks to achieve that matters,” Oshunt-okun said.

He said the lack of ethics guiding football in the country might have necessitated the action of the players.

“As the minister said, maybe because there is no codified ethics guiding the conduct of football. So, we should have a set of rules that governs that so that it will be easy to determine who violates and who is at fault, so as to mete out appropriate sanctions,” Oshuntokun said.