The Taraba State Football Club ( Taraba FC) were recently held hostage by the management of the Moralex Hotel in Wuse Zone Two in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja over accumulated bills.

Investigations by Ikenga Chronicles reveal that, the players and management of the team had lodged at the hotel while going for the National League in Abuja but the state government failed to pay the bills and when they were to travel back to Jalingo, the management of the hotel had no choice but to hold them back pending the remittance of the bills.

In a telephone interview, the club chairman, Daniel Ishaya Gani, said the ” people we borrowed money from to come and play the National league here in Abuja and the management of the hotel that we lodge are presently holding us hostage because of our inability to offset our bills.”

Our investigation reveal that team was in Abuja to play the Abuja FC in the federal capital territory and had to source funds from groups and individuals before proceeding to Abuja for the league.

Dejected by the incident which has turned the players to mendicants in Abuja, the chairman, said they have resolved to go cap in hand sourcing for helping hands from the National Assembly members from the state.

According to him ” we have resolved to go round and borrow money from our members in the National Assembly and we are hopeful that some of them would come to our rescue.”

The chairman and his team are however optimistic that the Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Alhassan Aisha Jumai who hails from the state and some of the National Assembly members from the state would help in salvaging the situation.

“Our only hope” as made known by the chairman ” is on the only Minister from our state, Senator Aisha because we have reached out to her on the telephone. Though she is not in the country but she has promised to reach us soon.”

Describing the situation as ” a national embarrassment” he expressed dismay at the way and manner the state government has continued to relegate both the players and the team management to the background.

Ishaya who told our reporter that ” the owners of the hotel are preventing us from going out pending when we settle our debt” said the players are contemplating of leaving behind the club bus: ” the players suggested that we should leave our bus behind.”

Some of the players who also bared their minds described the situation as ” great embarrassment” and wondered why the state government has continued to drag its feets on issues that have to do with the club.

The players who have embarked on series of protest to the government house in Jalingo over unpaid salaries and allowance, said they would be left with no option than to find their ways back to Jalingo, the state capital leaving behind in the hotel, the club bus.

Our correspondent gathered that the senator representing Taraba South, Emmanuel Bwacha, the Minister for Women and Social Development, Senator Alhassan Aisha Jumai, had intervened by providing some funds for the team to ameliorate their plights while the government was still complacent.

Though the ransom has been paid and the team released, our correspondent gathered that the state government is not comfortable with the chairman of the team for reaching out to others and exposing government’s indifference to the plight of the team.

Our independent investigation reveal that plans are underway for the sack of the chairman and would have been made formal, if it were not for his strategic political relevance to governor Darius Ishaku and his 2019 re-election ambition.

FC Taraba have staged over five protests in the last few months to protest non-payment of their entitlements for over two years.

http://ikengachronicles.com/untold-story-of-how-f-c-taraba-were-held-hostage-over-unpaid-hotel-bills/

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