World Guinness Fight : Sports Minister accuses Bash Ali of blackmail

Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh has denied allegations by former world Cruiserweight champion, Bash Ali that he demanded another 1 million dollars from him to enable him endorse his Guinness Book of World Record Fight.

The Minister stated this following a trending video and open petition to the President by the former boxing champion accusing him of demanding money from him.

Addressing the Press, Senator Enoh accused Bash Ali of throwing caution and decency to the wind by the accusation which he said was aimed to defame and destroy his reputation.

The Minister noted that when the video was released, some of his friends and associates advised that he should ignore him and his blackmail gambit ; saying that by responding to him and his vile campaign of calumy, will validate and bring him to the limelight but after a deep reflection, he came to the inevitable conclusion that to ignore him will be a profound mistake because the perception in the public domain is that those in the public service are either thieves or kleptomaniacs who mindlessly pillage the country’s Commonwealth.

“This assumption, no matter how widely held, is not true. Despite our challenges as a nation, there are men and women who continue to serve our country with honesty, integrity, and patriotism. I AM ONE OF SUCH.

“Secondly, ignoring Bash Alli and his tradition of deploying blackmail and gutter tactics now, will further embolden and enable him to continue in his usual trajectory even after I have served out my mandate as minister of Sports, without consequences.

The Sports Minister went ahead to remind Nigerians that before he was appointed Minister of Sports Development, Bash Alli had sought to mindlessly impugn the character and reputation of some of his predecessors in office, without any shred of evidence and that in his own case, he has exhumed and redeployed this hydra headed monster and gone overboard because past
Ministers treated him and his wild allegations with kid gloves noting that to simply walk away from this baloney to him is not an option.

“Bash Alli’s allegation that I demanded for “another 1 million dollars”as if I had received a first tranche of one million dollars from him,or perhaps any of my predecessors had done so,is a manufactured lie from the pit of hell.

“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 government in Nigeria is a cash cow at the mercy of public servants to pillage at will.

“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.

“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 get more briefing from the Ministry. All my life, the said meeting is 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.

Senator Enoh further stated that Bash Alli’s plan to stage his boxing fight in Nigeria has a long history spanning almost two decades positing that to achieve this personal aspiration, he has deployed all manner of strategies including naked blackmail and under hand tactics in his desperate effort to arm twist the Federal Government to spend upwards of $50m USD to stage his fight.

The Minister went on to say that successive Ministers of Sports have rightly told him that his plan to stage this fight is not the responsibility of the government but a business that should be executed by the private sector.

Concluding his statement, the Minister stated that he sincerely believe that, in spite of numerous challenges, the country still has a soul.

“Our humanity will be irretrievably destroyed the day we lose our soul. Bash Alli’s desperate and unprovoked withering attack on me is an attack on decency, honesty, and integrity. The move to clear my name has just started, and there will be no let up until I achieve this sacred mission.

Senator Enoh announced that he has instructed his lawyer to write Bash Alli demanding an immediate public retraction of his allegations and to render a public apology within one week and failure to do so, he will be left with no other option than to approach the Courts to clear his name and seek for damages.