Champions of the 2018 Kwese Premier League, Gombe Bulls Baskrtball Club have told the African regional body of FIBA that they should not be dragged into the lingering leadership dispute of the Nigeria Basketball federation, NBBF
Chairman of the club, Ibrahim Saad said yesterday in reply to a letter written to the club by Julien Farran,Competitions Manager, Africa of FIBA that players and teams in the Kwese Premier including Gombe Bulls are only interested in playing basketball and not politics.
The Gombe side had written to the Abidjan office of FIBA Africa, intimating it that few days to the commencement of the Zone 3 qualifiers for the Club Championship which they qualified for, they are yet to get any information from Zone three whch is headed by a key member of the Musa Kida faction of the NBBF.
In response however, FIBA through Mr Farran directed Gombe Bulls to write through the NBBF which it communicates with, despite plea from the club that they have been kept in the dark concerning registration for the qualifiers.
Saad however, replied FIBA through the same Mr Farran that “There is no problem in writing through the NBBF which FIBA is communicating with at the moment provided the matter will not be politicised.”
He added that “Our players and teams are not interested in playing politics but playing basketball and the crisis in NBBF should not in any way affect our players and teams’ participation.”
The Gombe Bulls boss reminded FIBA that they qualified from the same Kwese Premier League alongside Kano Pillars last year but were almost denied participation by the same NBBF faction they have been asked to communicate through again having qualified through the same process.
“This year, we have qualified again through the same process and for this reason this is a straight-forward matter and therefore, any attempt to disturb our qualification as threatened in recent press statements by this NBBF will not be acceptable and we will be left with no alternative but to seek legal redress to defend our mandate.”
