By Solomon Odeniyi
Chief Press Secretary to former governor Bisi Akande during his tenure in office, Mr. Adelani Baderinwa has faulted the claim of the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Yemi Lawal that the Akande administration sold Osun United Football Club.
According to Baderinwa, Osun as a state did not own any football team at the time, describing Lawal’s claim as gross misinformation.
Baderinwa stated that the only extant football team during that time was owned by a woman who wanted the Akande administration to adopt the club.
He explained that Akande refused to take over the team because sport was not part of his campaign programmes and there was paucity of fund to even implement his core manifestos.
The former commissioner for Information and Strategy in the state said: “I can recall clearly that there was no state-owned football team. The only football club in the state then was owned by one woman who was always persuading Chief Akande to allow the government to take over the team.
“Baba turned the woman down because there was not enough fund to run his own programmes; let alone taking over a club. Moreover, sport was not part of his campaign programmes. The only thing he did outside the ‘Fresh Start’ manifesto was the building of the State Secretariat.
“So, it is not correct to say he sold Osun United, which did not exist at all. Yemi Lawal was wrong to say Chief Bisi Akande sold the team.”
Lawal, while trying to substantiate his claim that Osun government doesn’t own Osun United and Osun Babes in a recent online interview on Family United By Football Whatsapp platform said he found out from record that Chief Akande sold Osun United Football Club.
He stated: “To the best of my knowledge and the records I have, Osun United was not registered in 1998. The team was registered in the name of four individuals. Another interesting thing is that it was on record that Osun United was sold by Baba Akande’s administration.
“This must be substantiated, we must know who bought what and they are also saying Prime FC graduated to Osun united some years back. They must show us that Osun United of today is different from the Osun United of that time”.
