Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Bukola Olopade, has disputed former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi’s account of an alleged incident involving officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and members of the Flamingos team at the Abuja airport.

Obi had accused NFF officials of preventing him from welcoming the U-17 women’s national team after their return from Morocco.

However, Olopade, in a post on X, described Obi as a “pathological liar” and questioned how he could have seen the players under the circumstances surrounding their arrival.

He said the team arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 5:30 a.m., when it was still dark and domestic flight check-in activities had yet to begin.

According to him, the players passed through immigration and exited through the underground passage of the international terminal.

Olopade added that Obi, who said he was at the domestic terminal to board a flight to Enugu, could not have seen the players from that location.

“The plane landed at 5:30 a.m. It was still very dark. No local flight was checking in at that time. Even if they were checking in, there was no way Obi would have seen those children from where he was at the local airport,” he said.

Olopade also accused the NFF and the Presidency of engaging in what he described as “toxic politics”.