The Nation Newspaper

Tag: OKPALA’

  • Okpala urges Ifeanyi Ubah FC to defeat Sunshine Stars

    Okpala urges Ifeanyi Ubah FC to defeat Sunshine Stars

    An ex-Rangers International, Fred Okpala says Ifeanyi Ubah FC of Nnewi will need quality and tactical discipline to hold top contenders, Sunshine Stars of Akure.

    The Nnewi side will host Sunshine Stars in the week 22 fixture on Aug. 9 at the Rojenny Stadium Oba, near Onitsha.

    Okpala spoke against the backdrop of the uninspiring performances of Ifeanyi Ubah in recent times that had led to their steady decline in the run up to the league table.

    They lost 0-3 to Warri Wolves in Warri on Aug. 5 and earlier managed a 1-1 draw against Abia Warriors on Aug. 2 in Nnewi.

    The Anambra Warriors as the club is also known, just returned to their traditional home ground in the 12th spot on the table, with 28 points — eight wins, nine loses and four draws — after 21 matches.

    The Akure side had occupied the third spot on the log with 36 points — 11 wins, three draws and six loses with an outstanding match.

    “The character that makes a team is lacking; you cannot be losing points continuously in every game, at this stage of the league. The ingredients of a good team are professional management, a good bench and good sets of players. But I cannot see all that now, they must work on themselves to win against the visiting Sunshine. I pray they win,” Okpala said.

    Meanwhile Coach John Obuh of Ifeanyi Ubah explained that the poor showing of the club was psychological rather than tactical error.

    Obuh said there was need to beef up the team with new players, noting that it was difficult getting players during the mid-season transfer window because of the indebtedness of clubs to players.

    He said they had put the past behind them and were looking forward to securing three points against the Stars.

    The coach, however, urged the club’s supporters to be patient with them, stressing, they were under pressure to deliver.

    “We are working to get it right, the recent results are impacting negatively on some of the players, their mentality has to be repositioned to winning and it is psychological.

    “We need new players quite alright but that is not easy in the mid-season, now because most clubs owe their players and if you contract them you also become responsible for their pay.

    “Our match against Sunshine is important to us and we shall be victorious, we appeal to our supporters to be patient as we are on course,” he said.

  • I didn’t request for Okpala – Siasia • Vows to work on Dream Team VI defense

    I didn’t request for Okpala – Siasia • Vows to work on Dream Team VI defense

    The Chief Coach of Nigeria’s  Dream Team VI, Samson  Siasia has said that he has not requested for the services of former Super Eagles’ Assistant Coach Sylvanus Okpala to come and join his technical crew.

    He said that Coach Okpala is a respected coach in the country but the truth about the matter is that there is no need to request for assistant when he already had coaches helping out in the team.

    “No, not at all, I have never said anything like that. We have the people who can fix any problem we might notice in this team which is the technical crew of this team. We have Fatai Amoo, Aloy Agu and Monday Odigie in this team that are capable to fix any problem we notice in this team. They are wonderful people so I am not looking for anybody else. So I don’t know where the report came from,” Siasia said.

    He, however, disclosed that the defense line of the team needs to be worked on to make the team more solid.

    “We have noticed that we need to work on the team’s defense which I am not totally happy with for now. But we are not going to look outside the shores of Nigeria to get the players needed to fix this because we have quality players among the pool of players we have here in Abuja that can help us fix it.

    “The last game we played against Gabon we won 4-1, we scored four goals while they scored one. So I think they didn’t play that bad. I just don’t want to tell them that they are doing well now because there is room for improvement. I want them to be more focused and work more to make it defense solid.

    “If we bring fresh players from outside to beef up the defense line it will be difficult to start adjusting the back line. It is some few days to our next game (against Gabon). So we will keep with the ones we have now, watch our videos and make those corrections to make sure they will be good enough to defend well on that day,” Siasia disclosed.

  • Currently, Ebonyi House of Assembly is illegally constituted –Okpala

    One of the grave implications of declaring vacant the seats of four members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly who defected from PDP to the Labour Party is that the action rendered the composition of the House unconstitutional, says Prince Oliver Okpala, a political analysts who served as the Personal Adviser to the former National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Excerpts

    THE recent happenings in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly need to be examined critically because of its political and constitutional implication and the danger it poses to the principles of separation of power as contained in the 1999 constitution as amended under our nascent democratic republicanism.

    A couple of days ago, the Ebonyi State House of Assembly declared vacant, the seat of four legislators of the State House of Assembly on the grounds that they defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Labour Party in the state.

    “It is pertinent to mention here that under the 1999 constitution as amended, the House of Assembly of any state must be composed of a minimum of 24 members and maximum of 40 members.

    The simple implication of what the Ebonyi State House of Assembly did by declaring the four seats vacant out of its total 24 members and reducing their number to 20 members is that the House now operates with 20 members, which is far below the constitutional provision of minimum of 24 members.

    “In essence, anything done by the Ebonyi State House of Assembly now, with its present strength of 20 members, cannot but be illegal and unconstitutional.

     “With 20 members now piloting the affairs of the legislature against the minimum constitutional provision of 24, no valid, legal or constitutional action can emanate from the House because the House is improperly and illegally constituted.

    “The House cannot validly pass bills, resolutions or function as a legislative house as in law “you cannot give what you don’t have.”

    ‘As you know, the issue of declaration of the seats of legislators who have joined other political parties vacant has been in the front banner in recent times. This issue is now in the domain of our courts.

    When the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives left the PDP to join the APC his former party, the PDP took him to court to declare his seat vacant and the court has not handed down any verdict on the issue.

    “So, I believe allowing the matter to be decided by the court first is the legal procedure which one would have expected the Ebonyi State House of Assembly to follow.

    Instead, the House proceeded to declare the seats of the four legislators vacant when the matter is the subject of litigation yet to be decided by the court.

    To me, the action of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly is a dangerous legislative and political precedence which has the capability of truncating our democratic structure, the rule of law and separation of power.

    “If the declaration of the seats of the four lawmakers vacant subsists, it should be emphasised that before the House can resume legislative functions, INEC will have to conduct fresh elections in the state to fill the vacant positions of the legislators to bring the composition of the House to the minimum constitutional requirement of 24 members.

    This is not the first time the House has shown total disdain to the constitution of the country. The Assembly should realise that the constitution of the country is a supreme document not a mere piece of paper.

    “It is this particular Assembly that recently sat and sacked all the chairmen of caretaker committees of local governments in the state duly appointed by the state government whereas it has no power to take such an action.

    The issue of appointment of caretaker or transition committee chairmen rests squarely on the shoulders of the executive arm of the government and not the legislature.

    “The Ebonyi State House of Assembly has continued to pass resolutions of the House as if they are laws that must be obeyed by the Executive.

    For a legislative house to contemplate to impeach a state governor, on grounds of non-implementation of its resolutions is to descend from the sublime to the ridiculous.

    “This constitutional crisis looming in Ebonyi State and some other Houses of Assembly in the country should be checkmated before it snow-balls into a colossal political cauldron and conflagrations round the country in order to preserve and protect our nascent democracy,” he said.

  • OKPALA’S CAS CASE: NFF begins defence in Zurich

    OKPALA’S CAS CASE: NFF begins defence in Zurich

    Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) general secretary Musa Amadu is in Zurich, Switzerland, to defend the federation in a case brought against it by former Nigeria assistant coach Sylvanus Okpala.

    AfricanFootball.com specially gathered that Amadu, fresh from the NFF elections in Warri, is accompanied by A.U. Mustapha, a lawyer.

    Okpala has said he was forced to take his petition to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) after he exhausted all channels locally.

    He said he was wrongly sacked soon after Nigeria won a third African Cup of Nations at South Africa 2013 and that his match bonuses and allowances were also slashed without any justification.

    ‘Quick Silver’ Okpala was a former international and played most of his professional football in Portugal.

    In April, the NFF reduced the number of Super Eagles’ backroom staff from 17 to nine, as part of an expenditure review as its finances were tight. Assistant coaches Okpala and Valare Houandinou were the two big casualties of the exercise and head coach Stephen Keshi voiced his displeasure about the redundancies.

    Okpala’s case appeared to have been worsened by an incident in South Africa where the NFF leadership accused him of insubordination for daring to report the NFF’s president to top official of the Nigerian Sports Commission (NSC).

    It appears that in South Africa, when the allowances of some staff were slashed, Okpala called the official and reported the issue. This did not go down well with the NFF top brass who considered it as gross disrespect.