Technical Adviser of Kano Pillars, Ibrahim Musa has accused centre referee Joseph Ogabor of “taking sides” against Pillars in the goalless draw between his team and Nasarawa United at the Lafia Township Stadium on Thursday.
Despite earning a valuable point on the road in the Matchday 18 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) encounter, Musa took exception to certain calls made by the FIFA graded referee and contrasted his performance to the officiating in his side’s 3-0 loss at Akwa United on Matchday 15, declaring himself more satisfied with the officiating in Uyo despite his team’s loss.
“I went to Akwa we lost three zero and I appreciated the officiating but I have one point here and I don’t appreciate [the officiating] especially since he is a FIFA graded referee. He’s taking sides which is not good for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and football generally in the country,” Musa said in his post-match comments.
Ogabor has acquired a less than stellar reputation after he was banned for one year in 2018 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for his part in the attempted manipulation of the CAF Confederation Cup tie between Plateau United and USM Alger where he was found to have acted inappropriately by attempting to influence the South African officials to tilt the tie in favour of United.
Misgivings regarding officiating aside, Musa also faulted his side’s profligacy for their failure to take all three points in Lafia.
“We were supposed to win this match, if you look at the game, we created many scoring chances and we did not convert it. If we [had] converted our chances, our history would be different but notwithstanding, I appreciate the efforts of the players and we go back to the drawing board to correct our mistakes especially in the finishing area.”
Pillars currently occupy fourth place on the Group B log and are two points behind the last playoff spot with just four games of the regular season left to play and Musa says a club the size of Pillars should be ahead of the pack and declared that securing a playoff berth for the Sai Masu Gida remains the focus of the entire team.
“Kano Pillars is a great team in Nigeria, one of the best teams in Nigeria [and] Kano Pillars is supposed to be topping the group but it’s football, we are doing our best to see Kano Pillars through [to] the Super Six.”
