Internal And External Attacks Downed Lobi Stars - Club's Chief

As Lobi Stars Football Club of Makurdi set to return to the top flight Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), preparations to participate in the Nigerian National Football League (NNFL) season to qualify and return to the top class remain high!

Lamenting what pushed Lobi into relegation, Chairman of the club, Philip Nongo (Ph.D) disclosed that "internal and external attacks" sent the club into oblivion! He disclosed this to the sports writers during the media briefing in Makurdi.

Nongo Ph.D said "we faced relentless internal and external attacks from football agents, the club's insiders and power brokers who placed personal interests above the collective progress." 

According to the Permanent Secretary, Benue State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Creativity, deliberate acts of sabotage came from various directions causing technical instability, player negative attitude and administrative backsliding." He said, the problem affected not only performance but morale of the team inclusively.

 Specifically, he said "insults and character defamation became daily reality for us, my executives and even some players" joined the campaign!

The Club's Chairman lamented "certain individuals lobbied for my removal" when they turned the club's struggle into a political opportunity to satisfy personal interests contrary to the unity the club desired very dearly.

Nongo continued "the past football season was one of the toughest in the history of Lobi Stars F C." According to him, the season meant to reflect on the club's "vision and ambition ended in disappoinment with relegation from NPFL to the NNFL."

The Permanent Secretary expressed displeasure thus "the result on the pitch was not what we hoped for, the story of this season goes beyond statistics and standings." He

suspected certain individuals of having lobbied to remove him from the position after seizing political opportunity of the club's struggle for survival. The Chairman said "morale of the club was attacked not only by poor results but by the toxic campaign, fueled by the misinformation and half truths!" 

Other challenges according to him included the short period his management of the club came on board two days to the commencement of 2024/2025 league season. Nongo added "all the players were employed and registered by the past management" with arrears of salaries for three months left to pay the back room staff including match bonuses for players, the indebtedness has been off-set at moment.

Nongo took responsibility of the relegation and thanked Governor Hyacinth Alia by not relenting on the support to the club and assured of including local talents into the team as requested by the Governor. He equally appreciated the fans of with other stakeholders as he undertook to sign the players that would bring Lobi back to the top flight league. 

He accepted the responsibility by saying "mistake may have been made, but the difference between failure and success is the willingness to learn and we are learning quickly."

On a related development, the management of Lobi Stars unveiled Coach Bala Abubakar as new technical Adviser to lift Lobi out of the NNFL to the NPFL.