The Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Hon. Bukola Olopade, has launched a scathing attack on the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, describing him as a “pathological liar” over his recent claims regarding Nigeria’s U-17 women’s national team, the Flamingos. The dispute erupted after Obi publicly accused officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) of preventing him from greeting the victorious players at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja following their historic victory at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco.
In a statement titled “A New Dimension of Toxic Politics in Nigeria,” Obi claimed he had arrived at the domestic terminal around 7:00 a.m. to catch an Enugu-bound flight when he noticed the team and sent his protocol team to ask if he could congratulate them, only to be turned away by NFF officials who allegedly claimed they would lose their jobs if they permitted any interaction with him.
Obi used the incident to accuse the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of introducing toxic, partisan hostility into national sporting events and using state institutions to intimidate opposition leaders.
Setting the record straight, Olopade dismissed Obi’s entire account as a complete fabrication, explaining that the logistics and timeline of the team’s arrival made it physically impossible for Obi’s story to have occurred.
The NSC boss revealed that the Flamingos landed in Abuja at approximately 5:30 a.m. when it was still pitch dark and long before domestic check-in activities had even commenced.
Furthermore, he detailed that the team immediately processed through immigration and departed through the international terminal’s underground exit.
He questioned what Obi could have been doing at the airport at 5:00 a.m. when no domestic flights were operational, insisting that from his supposed position at the local terminal, Obi could not have seen or encountered the team under any circumstances. Olopade emphasized that access to players at FIFA-organized tournaments is governed strictly by international protocol rather than political clout, scolding the former governor for attempting to hijack the young athletes’ historic moment for cheap political points and calling into serious question Obi’s moral integrity and reputation for making unverified allegations he cannot defend in the public space.
