Rio 2016: Mikel Obi pays $4000 to free squad after hotel officials held them to ransom over bills
According
to the report by African Football, the team is comprised of 25
players-18 players and 7 officials, but extra five officials were
added to the team's hotel roster, and the hotel management insisted the
team pay before departing, but instead of the NFF or the Sports Ministry
to pay up the bills, Mikel Obi, who is also Team Nigeria's captain
shelled out $4,000 before they were allowed to leave the Sao Paulo hotel
to Salvador.
“We just arrived Salvador now (5.20pm
Nigerian time) from Sao Paolo. We nearly missed our flight because of
unpaid bills in the hotel. The hotel held us to ransom,” a team official
told AfricanFootball.com
“The problem is that
all the additional officials here in Brazil are the responsibility of
the Nigeria Football Federation, who said they will pay for them, but
they did not pay for them again.
“The affected
officials included the team’s media officer, the team coordinator, the
kits manager in charge of players and officials’ kits and the
accompanying assistant director technical.
“A
call was put across to the honourable minister of youths and sports, he
said we should put the bill in the (credit) card but the card didn’t
work. They tried and tried but the minister said that only 18 players
and seven officials should be captured as regards payment according to
the rules of the Olympic Games.
“So, the hotel
bills of these other officials, about five of them cost the sum of over
$4,000. They held us hostage for more than one hour and we nearly missed
our flight. It was Mikel (Obi) who rescued us by paying the money.
“I
can tell you honestly speaking that this incident is not the fault of
the minister because the minister listed the people to be accommodated
which were 18 players and seven officials”
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