FECAFOOT staff go two months without pay

The Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT is now unable to pay its employees’ salaries after its president failed to have its frozen bank accounts reopened through the Yaounde high court; The Cameroon News Online has gathered.

A source at FECAFOOT told The Cameroon News Online that the staff have not been paid their salaries for the month of May and that they are afraid the situation is not about to change, though the federation’s president is leaving no stone unturned to get the United Bank for Africa, UBA and ECOBANK to unblock its accounts.

The FECAFOOT boss, Tombi a Roko Sidiki, however told The Cameroon News Online in a telephone interview yesterday that anyone claiming FECAFOOT has been unable to pay its staff salaries is not telling the truth.

Tombi a Roko remained evasive when The Cameroon News Online repeatedly asked him to state whether or not the federation is facing financial difficulties because their accounts are frozen.

He rather struggled to explain that the Federation had six accounts when he took over as FECAFOOT president after the controversial elections of 2015. “When ECOBANK and UBA decided to honour a complaint written by Abdouraman Hamadou (one of the contenders for the post of FECAFOOT president) who claimed I was not the legal president, we have been working with the remaining four banks” he said.

The controversial FECAFOOT boss whose mandate was validated by the sports and physical education minister, supposedly contrary to the text of the federation, told The Cameroon News Online that FIFA, CAF, Puma and other partners have been depositing funds in the four other unfrozen accounts on a tri-monthly basis.

Our source nonetheless, dismissed Tombi A Roko’s claims. “FECAFOOT had some money in its account at the Commercial Bank of Cameroon, but “it is all gone” he insisted.

Our source also said CAF does not send money to FECAFOOT, adding that: “FIFA sends money only to UBA and would not transfer money into another account in order to avoid fraud. Other partners including Puma send money on a quarterly basis, which means we will not even have salaries at the end of June.”

The visibly dejected FECAFOOT employee wondered aloud why Tombi a Roko would be hanging onto the presidency and making them suffer, whereas even the court’s refusal to order the release of the funds is an indication that he is not recognised as a legal president.

It should be recalled that the Conciliation and Arbitration Chamber of the Cameroon National Sports and Olympic Committee had declared invalid the electoral procedure used in the election of the executive bureau of the Cameroon Football Association (FECAFOOT) that elected Tombi a Roko as new FECAFOOT President on September 28, following a complaint filed by Abdouraman Hamadou.

In an attempt to put an end to the long-drawn-out tussle over the FECAFOOT presidency, the minister of sports and physical education, Bidoung Mkpatt, signed a decision, validating the election of Tombi a Roko as President.

It was after the minister’s decision that Abdouraman Hamadou and Joseph Antoine Bell et al, requested that all the bank accounts of the Federation to be blocked, to prevent an “illegal president” from withdrawing funds.

As Tombi a Roko told The Cameroon News Online, only two out of the six banks heeded the complaint. He later filed a suit at the High Court in Yaounde, requesting that the injunction on the accounts be lifted.

 The Abdouraman Hamadou-camp also filed a counter suit, accusing him of attempted theft for trying to withdraw funds from the federation’s account.

“You should remember we are the ones who took the case to court. The Judge did not affirm that I am not the legal president. So Abdouraman and Bell cannot say that they won, simply because the judge did not order the banks to release the funds”, he opined.

Quizzed why the court did not order the banks to release the funds, Tombi a Roko told The Cameroon News Online to “ask the judge.” He further asked rhetorically why we did not asked them how they were functioning when the accounts were frozen.

Told that anyone would have imagined that they had other smaller accounts in other banks, which accounts would soon be emptied as it seems to have happened, Tombi a Roko, simply restated that: “salaries have been paid” and asked who informed The Cameroon News Online that the staff of the federation had unpaid salaries.

“If you are not going to tell me who gave you such information, then I cannot continue talking to you”, he stated categorically and hung up.

Abdouraman Hamadou, it should be noted, recently revealed to the press that the FECAFOOT presidency squabble is being reviewed at the international Court of Arbitration for Sport in based in Lausanne-Switzerland.