Former players of Akwa United who won the 2017 Aiteo Cup say Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State is yet to redeemed the N70m he promised the squad after the feat, three years after.
Akwa United defeated Niger Tornadoes 3-2 on penalties in the final of the competition after both a 0-0 stalemate in full and extra time.
Four players namely Ojo Olorunleke, Cyril Olisema, Musa Newman and Ifeanyi Ifeanyi, who were instrumental to the club’s success, said they had tried every possible means to reach out to the club’s chairman to help persuade the governor to redeem his pledge to the team, to no avail.
Olorunleke, now with Sunshine Stars, said “Akwa United are yet to pay us the N70m promised us by the governor. We have tried our best to reach the Commissioner for Sports (Monday Uko) on this and he has promised us severally, but we never got paid.”
Newman, who is currently unattached said, “We have tried every possible dialogue with the club chairman (Paul Bassey) over this matter but there has been no positive responses.
Cyril Olisema added,” For the past three years, we’ve been pleading with the chairman (Bassey) on this matter.
“We spoke to the commissioner for sports in the state last year before we played the Super Six in Lagos and he assured us that the governor had released the funds but they said they needed us to win the tournament in Lagos before we got paid.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t clinch any continental ticket and ever since it’s been back and forth on this.
“They redeemed the pledge of the class of 2015 that won the Federation Cup with N2m each and a house. Why have they decided to treat us like this?”
Ifeanyi stated, “For the sake of some of us without a club at the moment, they should pay us what has been promised us. It’s a case of a broken promise from a team dubbed the Promise Keepers.”
When our correspondent contacted Akwa United chairman Paul Bassey on the issue, he said, “None of our players have gotten in touch with me. I’m not aware of that, so I don’t want to talk about what I don’t know about.” – Punch.
