Chukwu demands unpaid salaries

By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos

Chukwu captained Nigeria to win the 1980 Nations Cup

Former Super Eagles coach Christian Chukwu is demanding that the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) pays the backlog of salaries which he is still owed.

Chukwu was in charge of the Nigeria national team from 2002 until 2005 when he was fired following a string of poor results.

He claims he is owed over US$128,000 since September 2006 when his contract officially ended with the NFA and has finally lost patience.

"It is annoying that I toiled so much and these people at the NFA cannot figure out ways of sorting out the money they owe me," Chukwu said.

"I have made several efforts through writing, telephone calls and visits to the NFA office but there is still no word.

"The last time they assured me that they will get to the bottom of the matter.

"It's very frustrating and annoying to be treated this way, I am very sure a foreign coach will not be treated this way."

Despite Chukwu's claims, the NFA says the former Nigeria captain must provide evidence that he is owed US$128,000.

NFA spokesman Ademola Olajire revealed that previous Nigerian coaches were paid the backlog of their salaries when they provided evidence.

"If he claims he is owed some money he should provide concrete evidence and we will follow it up from this end," Olajire told BBC Sport.

"But today we do not have such evidence and cannot act on verbal claims.

"The new Nigerian coach [Shaibu Amodu] was being owed from 2002 and we sorted him out some months back."