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By James Shamange
On Tuesday, August 22, 2023, Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia called for an emergency assembly of all Benue stakeholders in sports, especially football, to address the lingering crises in Lobi Stars Football Club.
In the Governor’s opening remark, he said “I have taken briefs, I have engaged people, I have received reports and it has been discussed on the streets and I have come to a conclusion that Lobi Stars Football Club is broken, and what is not broken does not need fixing, as such we are here to fix Lobi Stars “.
The Governor as the Chief Security Officer of the state must have had more than enough reasons to come to that conclusion. He has certainly received briefings from concerned individuals and groups, received petitions against Dominic Iorfa, and gotten reports from the State Assets Recovery Committee and anti-graft agencies on allegations of fraud against the desperate and embattled Iorfa, who is the current Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lobi Stars.
In addition, the Governor by virtue of the position he occupies must have accessed classified information before coming out with such a damning and unambiguous declaration.
Sadly, Iorfa in his desperation to retain the job that only the same Governor Alia can offer, quickly hired a lawyer, Daniel Sorkaa, who is always available for hatchet jobs, to counter the Governor’s well informed public statement.
It is definitely a mischief and desperation taken too far for Sorkaa to deliberately quote Coach Godwin Koko Uwua out of context. Speaking at the meeting, the foremost coach explicitly conveyed to the assembly that all the problems which had compelled the Governor to pass such a serious verdict on the club came into being because Iorfa was no longer listening to football stakeholders. He said like a tyrant and maximum ruler, Iorfa had become unapproachable and omniscience and that led to the crises the Governor had just enunciated. Uwua went on to state categorically clear that in view of recent happenings, Iorfa has become a virus that must be removed immediately for the club to survive. In fact, for more than four times, he repeated CHANGE Iorfa for someone more acceptable and credible.
It is, therefore, appalling and totally wrong for a so-called learned man who should uphold his integrity as a lawyer at all times to willfully and maliciously conclude that Iorfa’s only sin is his refusal to take Uwua along. For the information of the hired writer, Uwua, a highly respected traditional title holder wasn’t crying to be carried along by an egoistic and self-centered man like Iorfa.
On Captain Daniel Atsaka’s attempt to glorify the sinking Iorfa, he must be commended, for along the line, he bravely injected some honest confessions into his speech unlike his earlier media outings which were filled to the brim with outright falsehoods just to secure his position as a non-playing captain of the club.
But I still want Astaka to answer the following questions. Whose duty is it to win games? Is it the players or the management? Were the players owed one month’s salary before Iorfa took over? Is Atsaka and his co-travelers confessing that the club relied on Iorfa’s buying of matches to come out of relegation? Can a club with 19 matches left to play be said to be truly in relegation, when 19 matches can take it from the bottom of the table to the top? Atsaka simply justified the inability of the players to win games while relying only on match buying to survive. Such a mentality needs to be completely changed. Unfortunately that is where Iorfa has taken the club to.
It’s indeed disheartening that Barr Sorkaa, an old lawyer can accept such a job for peanuts just to question the authority and wisdom of Governor Hyacinth Alia to justifiably describe Lobi Stars as a broken organisation that must be fixed without further delay.
It is also shameful that educated members of the society who should have critical minds are being used by the uneducated who can afford their services. I want to state unequivocally that Sorkaa is a disgrace to the profession that harbours mostly intelligent people with sound and analytical minds.
In any case, if Iorfa thinks that hiring mercenaries to insult the Governor will keep him on a job, he has rather worsened his bad case. Once again, in his never ending stupidity, he has bitten his nose to spit his face.
I am unshaken in my belief that the Governor is only showing maturity and diplomacy. He had more than enough reasons to sack Iorfa but has decided to do it the other way, for like it is said in local parlance, there are different ways to kill a rat. Now that His Excellency has seen the open rejection of Iorfa by the Benue people, there will be no hiding place for him.
Therefore, instead of crying over spilled milk, Barr. Sorkaa should spare his energy for the court cases that are waiting to swallow his paymaster, unless he disappears again to London.
At this juncture, I wish members of the Fact Finding Committee success in the discharge of their duties and urge them to deliver on the assignment without fear or favour to justify the confidence reposed in them by the Governor.
Doomsday was postponed on Tuesday but Monday, August 28 is just around the corner so we wait patiently for the D-Day.
There is no more hiding place for Dominic Iorfa, so know this and have peace, Barr. Sorkaa.
Indefatigable James Shamange writes from Makurdi
