- I left camp with permission
Nigeria U20 national team captain, Musa Muhammed, has said he left the camp of the U23 team with the permission of head coach, Samson Siasia last Wednesday.
Muhammed absconded from Dream Team VI camp ahead of today’s All Africa Games, AAG, qualifier against Zambia in order to sign a contract in Europe with Siasia expressing disappointment at his action.
Shortly afterwards, Siasia announced his team of 18 players for the battle of Lusaka today, but Muhammed said it is not true that he disappeared from the camp.
Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has already vowed to penalise the player for the conduct.
However, Muhammed said that he had no reason whatsoever to abscond after all he was the first player to resume camp. He told Goal that he had gone to retrieve his passport from the German Embassy which he did with permission.
“It is not true. I have been reading in papers that I ran away from camp but it is not true. I am surprised, though I was told to keep silent about it but my image is at stake. When I came to the camp, the team’s secretary asked me for my passport. I told him my passport was not with me but at the German Embassy. After two days, he asked for it again and I notified him it was still not with me.
“Even the slip I needed to collect my passport was in my home state in Kano. I didn’t come to camp with it. They told me I am supposed to speak to the chief coach about it, that my passport was not with me. And he told me they needed the passport.
“The chief coach permitted me to go to Kano and from Kano to the Embassy in Lagos to collect my passport.
“They are all aware of my passport problem because they permitted me to go and collect the passport from the Embassy,” he said.