By Ori Martins
The football fans in Imo State are in flood of tears. Soccer loving people of Imo State are in deep morning. The simple reason is that their darling team, and one time Nigeria’s champions, Heartland FC are, for the second time, since 2016, relegated to the lower division of the Nigeria Premier League.
It must be said loud and clear that Heartland’s misfortune was created, caused and coupled by one man and his band of spin doctors. That is the deputy speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Amara Iwuanyanwu. His co- conspirators in this infamous act were Promise Nwachukwu, the man who betrayed his friend and trusted ally, Ifeanyi Chukwudi to dine and wine with enemies of Imo football., the Commissioner of Sports, Dan Ogu and few others who do not deserve any dignified mentioning here.
Governor Hope Uzodimma had reappointed Ifeanyi Chukwudi as the general manager of Heartland FC. The football manager was just settling down for business when, like a bomb from an air force raid fighter jet, the Imo deputy speaker, Amara Iwuanyanwu, launched a most deadly attack on the club and the newly general manager.
The deputy speaker’s assault on the club was devastating as well as severely damaging. First, against every known football regulation, he unprofessionally shutdown the club’s office or secretariat and ordered that all meetings should be held in his official residence. Since Chukwudi is a well experienced and exposed football administrator, he humbly advised Amara Iwuanyanwu about the danger of his actions. But the deputy speaker rather than listening to Chukwudi accused him of disloyalty.
Second, the deputy speaker started accessing the team’s money directly from source without going through the due processes of Heartland’s account even as the team had an accountant as well as cashier. The ill activity here was that, instead of the general manager managing the finances of Heartland, it was the deputy speaker controlling the accounts – collection, disbursement and retirement. This way, he was not accountable to anybody as everybody was afraid of him based on his capacity as the deputy speaker of the House as well as his acclaimed closeness to the governor.
Now, rather than follow the processes and procedures of an organized football setting, the deputy speaker, armed and fully loaded with a war chest – the Heartland purse – resorted to impunity. Number one, he slashed the team’s wages. Two, he sacked some members of management team. Instead of ploughing the money realized from these slashings on the team, particularly on the players, he turned the club into Imo State House of Assembly Rendezvous.
Heartland FC metamorphosed into a hot club of Imo East Assembly members as Amara Iwuanyanwu took a good number of them to away matches. Imagine the expenses. Imagine the immunity. The result was that the players were owed several months of arrears of salaries and the team’s journey to Golgotha commenced under the supreme watch and command of Imo deputy speaker, Amara Iwuanyanwu.
Insider sources revealed that the Imo State governor released about N3m per every home game and about N2m for an away match. In all it was alleged that at least about N1b was expended on Heartland FC in the just concluded Premier League season and the best Imo State got from it was relegation of the club.
This has happened because the Imo deputy speaker never inclined to professionalism. In all of these, Imo State Sports Commissioner, Dan Ogu was uninspiring in his actions. His outing so far in that capacity has been both horrendous and horrific. May God and gods save Imo State sports from his hands.
Do you still remember that the first time Heartland FC went on relegation in 2016, it was also a deputy speaker, OZB, again from Nwangele that made it happen. Enough of these deputy speakers from Nwangele.
