Ex Imo FA Board Member, Opara Insists On His Resignation

 ..Says His Suspension Didn't Follow Due Process

Former Imo FA board member and Chairman YSFON Imo state chapter Mr Sunny Ndubuisi Opara (Angy Lodge) insist that his resignation from the Imo FA board still stands, Statesman Newspaper can exclusively report.  

Opara who tendered his resignation letter from the board few days ago, pointed out irregularities, partiality and selfish interest by the Chairman Barrister Ifeanyi Dike (Fela) as reasons for resignation, insisting he won’t be a part of that system. 

But in a latest development, the Imo FA has responded to Opara’s resignation letter, by rejecting his resignation as a board member. 

To this effect, Opara has come out to declare that his resignation from the board still stands despite the rejection letter. 

In his words Opara said; 

“The Imo FA chairman, Barr Dike said he suspended me from Imo FA board siting false allegations of anti football activities , and issued me a suspension without due process and he calls himself a lawyer? 

Now I resigned and he is issuing me a letter, rejecting my resignation offer but I categorically stand here today to declare openly that MY RESIGNATION STILL STANDS. 

Having said that, i want to let the world know about this his purported suspension without due process. 

I Sunny Opara is the First National vice chairman YSFON and also the Chairman South East YSFON and finally the Chairman YSFON Imo state chapter. We have our structure and Statutes. 

YSFON comprises of all sports including football and YSFON is not under the NFF, YSFON is a federation of its own from the International body, down to the national and then the states and even the local governments. Just like state FA is under the NFF and NFF is under FIFA. 

According to the YSFON statutes, it is not mandatory to affiliate your competitions to FA or use FIFA referees or FA referees. 

But as an independent organization, if we have the funds, we can affiliate and then use NRA certified referees. 

But we all are aware our biggest challenges in football which is poor funding and sponsorship and we cannot just fold our hands and allow YSFON die because of lack of funds. We must continue pushing so that the talents of our young ones won’t die. And in such situations, the statutes of YSFON permits us to use our coaches or other reasonable options to officiate our games if we lack funds.

All this I explained to the board when they summoned me, but all of a sudden, after all my explanations and response to query, he issued me a suspension without disciplinary committee looking or investigating the matter properly. 

When he sent this suspension letter, I knew he had made a blunder but i kept mute simply because I brought him into the FA and I don’t want to mess up the same person i made. 

What broke the camels back was what he did during the Imo FA cup. 

Usually Heartland used to give Imo FA special money to aid their organizing but unfortunately this season, Heartland didn’t pay any extra money, Heartland paid the same amount of money every other teams pay and for this reasons, it resulted to what happened on the field of play. 

I was talking about bias, this same selfish interest the chairman displayed when Ex-Iwuanyanwu and Legends had their novelty match, and he openly showed his bias on a public platform when he Dike said and i quote him; 

‘ Good morning Gentlemen and ladies,  I really did not know that  these disqualification of Asef and Ex-Iwuanyanwu is still paining  the Ex- Iwuanyanwu,  it was made a topic of discussion in their meeting yesterday,  and their President and Ndubuisi Angy lodge, said a whole lot, and that shows me that some people are really jealous of Asef.

You cannot imagine that some people are still crying over an issue that happened  since last year, while we have move on.

We need to get more united and play them wike,s music 🎵🎵🎵

As e dey sweet us ,

E dey pain them,

As e dey pain dey 

Omo e dey sweet us!!!!!!😅😅😅😅😅😅’ 

Take a look at this above statement, how can the FA Chairman who is supposed to be a neutral body during a competition start taking sides? In his mocking songs who is the ‘US’ who is the ‘THEM’ ? 

When Mazi Amanze our boss tutored us, he told us clearly, do not look at money or personal interest as the priority, always consider the association first before any other thing.  

Now in administration, how we were thought to operate is this, it is the vice Chairman that is usually in charge of organizing. This was how it was under Amanze. 

When Sir Emma Ochiaga was there, he was the one in charge and then i took over, i became in charge of organizing, when Dike was the vice, the same trend and now that Dike is now the chairman,  the current vice chairman should be in charge of organizing Heartland matches but because he is new, he doesn’t know, so being the most experienced in the system, I explained to him his role and we started planning it when all of a sudden, Dike called me to accuse me of instigating his vice against him. 

So for this reasons, Dike declared that the board members will not get the usual matchday stipends again because he is in charge and he further declared that he is the chairman and whatever he says stands. We thought it was a joke, three matches gone and we the board members didn’t get a dime as stipends despite the 200,000 Naira matchday fee paid by Heartland. Meanwhile we only utilize not more than 60,000 Naira to prosecute matches.  

I told him that, this has always been the modus operandi but if he wants it to change the operational system, he can as well call everyone on a round table meeting and address the matter , letting us know the changes that he needs to apply so we can all be aware of the new mode of operations instead of taking decisions without consulting anyone. 

After this confrontation, he had to go and instigate the state refree association to make that case against me almost 3 months after the YSFON competition. 

I decided to speak up now so people will see my side of the story. There are more things to be said but most of them are internal matters of all the shenanigans going on in the Imo FA and because i want to protect my integrity, i had to quit so I won’t be part of a bad leadership or administration. So my resignation still stands” Opara told the statesman newspaper. 

There is more revelations to come in our next edition of the statesman newspaper.