Tornadoes file protest against Enyimba for fielding suspended Ibenegbu

The management of Niger Tornadoes has filed a protest letter to the League Management Company (LMC) against Enyimba International FC for fielding an ineligible player for matchday 28 of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL)at the UJ Eusene Stadium, Calabar. Niger Tornadoes lost with a 3-0 bashing in the encounter, reports Sportinglens.blogspot.com. 

Niger Tornadoes alleged that Enyimba deliberately fielded Ikechukwu Ibenegbu who was suspended for Matchday 28 game after the accumulation of 5 Yellow Cards.

According to information made available to Sportinglens.blogspot.com, the club received a notification of Ibenegbu suspension on the 3rd of July 2017 after receiving his 5th Yellow card of the season against Akwa United, thus suspending him for matchday 28.

Information also revealed that Ibenegbu was suspended on matchdays 1, 12, 14, 17 and 27. Ibenegbu was also cautioned with a yellow card on matchday 28 which made it his sixth yellow cards on the row.

"They took notice that Ibenegbu was in the match after he scored a sublime free kick at the 45 minutes plus four added time in the first half, so they went back to their archives to ensure that we were right before writing our petition," said the source.

The management said that it couldn't be negligence on the part of Enyimba to have fielded a suspended player, but an act of deliberate attempt which did not give room for free and fair competition.

"I want to put it straight here, Enyimba could not be ignorant of the suspension, they were served with the suspension letter as it was addressed to their chairman, while they were copied," the source revealed.

The source added that Niger Tornadoes want the full wrath of NPFL/LMC to take its course as enshrined in the law.

The Minna-based side cited, Section C, 5 of the NPFL/LMC rule which states that: "If it is established that a team intentionally featured a player who had earlier received five (5) yellow cards before the match in question, the affected team will lose 3 points 3 goals to its opponent."