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Odinga Lumumba withdraws from VP position on Team Unity slate
President of the Alpha United Football Club and former Vice President candidate of the Team
Odinga Lumumba
Unity slate, Odinga Lumumba has withdrawn his VP candidacy from Team Unity for tomorrow’s Guyana Football Federation (GFF) elections.
Citing attempts to misconstrue his intentions and his desire to see football be the winner in the long run, Lumumba made the decision to ensure the slate functions with no inhibitions and to ensure any cloud surrounding his involvement was removed.
Here is the full text of Mr Lumumba’s statement:
“Today I’m here because it is my opinion that at the end of the day football must be the victor. For the past three weeks attempts have been made by members of the Integrity Group in particular Mr. Forde, Mr. Adams and Mr. Lovell to drag my name, character and contribution to football into the mud.”
“These misguided individuals have gone so far as to suggest that the honorable counsel Mr. Nigel Hughes and fellow respected counsel Mark Waldron were hired by me to secure a victory in the upcoming GFF elections, and then after elections they would have ridden away in the sunset. Not only do I find this position ridiculous, it also shows the level of unscrupulous behavior that is presented by members of Team Integrity.”
“This group has decided that in order to win it must say degrading things about two young attorneys, strip them of their integrity and accuse them of taking bribes. In any other society they would have been brought before the courts or at the least, the ethics council of the governing body for the sport.
The records will show that in past seven years I have been able to turn around Alpha United from Guyana’s whipping boys to the present point where it is one of the top teams in the Caribbean.
The records would also show that my benevolence has been felt by over 100 footballers and by extension their families. Alpha United club is the first sport team in Guyana outside of boxing that has guaranteed their players financial incentive for their hard labor.”
“In addition, Alpha has uplifted the standard of Football in Guyana by importing players from Panama, Brazil, St. Vincent, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and recently we have signed a Nigerian player who is listed in the top 200 in his own country.
I wish to point out to members of Team Integrity that my desire is not to seek power in the GFF but to take local Football to a level that will set the course for better players so that Guyana as a country could become competitive and one day compete at the world cup.”
“While enduring the personal attacks, I want to assure the Football federation and the public at large that Lumumba doesn’t have any interest in presidency and will never attempt to undermine Mr. Hughes for him to leave.
To concretize this position, I have submitted a letter to the Chairman of the NC requesting an adjustment of Team Unity’s slate which would reflect that I am no longer running for the position of First Vice President.”
“This letter would take effect prior to the election on Saturday November 14th, and will be the mandate of the NC or new General Counsel. I do this with a heavy heart but my interest is to put football first always for the good of the game.”
Odinga Lumumba.
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