From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has secured a partnership with the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) to prosecute anybody involved in any form of match fixing.

NFF Integrity Officer, Dr Christian Emeruwa, who made the disclosure in a chat with Daily Sunsports yesterday revealed that the move is aimed at sanitizing the game in the country.

In his words: “The NFF Integrity Unit has commenced the process of getting security agencies involved in match fixing cases. They will help us carry out thorough investigation when the need arises. As we speak, there is  a DSS desk officer working with us in the Integrity Unit. We have also gotten a desk officer in the ICPC and just last week, we were able to conclude the same partnership with the Nigeria police through the office of the Director of Sports in the IGP’s office. 

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The idea is very simple, while we are looking at the sporting sanction from the side of the NFF, the various security agencies will handle the criminal and corruption investigation proper. You know that the federation does not have the capacity and powers to investigate account transactions, trail telephone conversations and SMS exchanges.”

The NFF buff stressed that his unit has communicated stakeholders of the latest development insisting that it is no longer going to be business as usual. 

“We have tried as much as possible to sensitise all the critical stakeholders and will continue to do so. We are appealing to everybody involved in football organisation to key into the program. The whole idea is to have a sanitised football environment where people can play the game without any form of off the field manipulation.”