TheCable

John Enoh, minister of sports development, has demanded that Bash Ali retract allegations that aimed “to defame and destroy” his reputation. 

On April 25, Ali, a former world cruiserweight champion, alleged the minister demanded “another $1 million” to stage a Guinness World Record boxing fight in the country.

The 68-year-old, who aims to clinch the Guinness World Record for the oldest boxing champion, added that the minister would not “meet Bash Ali Boxing Project Local Organizing Committee (LOC)” unless he paid the money. 

He also alleged that the minister was “pretending to be working by purposely sending my file to the wrong department and telling me to be patient”. 

Responding to the allegations in a statement on Sunday, the minister described Ali’s claims as “blackmail gambit” and “gutter tactics”.

He added that the boxer’s allegation is “a manufactured lie from the pit of hell” and “at no point in time did I demand for any form of gratification from Bash Alli”.

“The questions to ask are these: One million dollars from where? If Bash Alli had one million dollars, why has he not staged his fight? His spurious allegation suffers from fatal deformity and is based on the erroneous impression that the government in Nigeria is a cash cow at the mercy of public servants to pillage at will,” the minister said.

“Let me be clear. Bash Alli desperately wanted to meet me in my very early days as Minister of Sports Development when I had hardly settled down on the job. In the deluge of his desperate attempts, I decided to meet him against the advice of the staff of the Ministry who were familiar with his character and antics. Against their advice, I decided to meet him out of respect for his age and based on the open-door policy with which I am currently leading the Ministry.

“Conscious of the advice of some key staff of the Ministry, I sought to insulate myself and the office from any blackmail that may emanate from this meeting by making sure that my team was present at the meeting. He presented the issue of his pet project, and I told him to be patient while I got more briefing from the Ministry. All my life, the said meeting was the first and only time I ever met Bash Alli. There were no follow-ups after that one-off meeting, and I did not introduce any of my aides to him. After the said meeting, I politely refused to meet with him to this day in spite of his numerous requests and pressures. His incessant messages to me will speak to his desperation.”

Enoh demanded “an immediate public retraction” of the allegations from Ali, adding that the former world champion must also “render a public apology”.

The minister gave Ali a week ultimatum, or he would “approach the courts to both clear my name and seek damages”.

HISTORY OF BASH ALI’S TUSSLES WITH SPORTS MINISTERS

Over the past decade, Ali has accused successive ministers of sports of similar allegations over the proposed Guinness World Record boxing fight.

In 2021, Ali accused Sunday Dare, former minister of youth and sports development, of extorting “millions of naira” from him as part of the process to organise the title fight.

It took an order from a high court in Abuja to restrain the boxer from making further defamatory publications about the former minister.

In 2017, Ali said orderlies of Solomon Dalung, a former minister of sports, assaulted him. He claimed he was beaten for demanding an appointment with the minister.

He accused the minister of “wasting my time” on organising the world record bout despite approval from former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In 2013, the former world champion claimed that Bolaji Abdullahi, former minister of sports, demanded bribes from him before staging the title bout.

The situation led to Ali falling out with Abdullahi, and several attempts at reconciliation failed.

Julius Ogunro, a media aide to Abdullahi, said Ali refused to issue a public apology to the minister for making such claims despite doing so privately.

“The meeting ended in a deadlock because, after he apologised to the minister that he was sorry, the minister asked him whether he [Abdullahi] asked him for money. But Bash [Ali] could not respond,” Oguro said.

“And the minister said if he [Ali] was not willing to tell the whole world that he did not ask for a bribe, he would not have a meeting with him.”