Samson Siasia gave permission to leave the camp- Musa Muhammed

Tomiwa Babalola

The absconded Flying Eagles captain, Musa Muhammed, has revealed that the national U23 manager, Samson Siasia gave him permission to leave the Dream Team VI camp last Wednesday.

The Dream Team VI coach had reported that the golden boot winner at the just concluded African Youth Championship in Senegal left the camp of the U-23 team to sign a contract in Europe which Siasia refuted expressly. 

Following his actions, the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation has insisted that the player in question will face the wrath of the law for his conduct.

However, Muhammed said that he had no reason whatsoever to abscond after all he was the first player to resume camp. He told Goal that he had gone to retrieve his passport from the German Embassy which he did under permission.

"It is not true. I've been reading in papers that I ran away from camp but it is not true,” Muhammed told Goal.

“I'm surprised, though I was told to keep silent about it but my image is at stake.

“When I came to the camp, the team's secretary asked me for my passport.

"I told him my passport was not with me but at the [German] Embassy. After two days, he asked for it again and I notified him it was still not with me.

“Even the slip I needed to collect my passport was in my home state in Kano. I didn't come to camp with it.

"They told me I'm supposed to speak to the chief coach about it, that my passport was not with me. And he told me they needed the passport.

"The chief coach permitted me to go to Kano and from Kano to the Embassy in Lagos to collect my passport.

“They are all aware of my passport problem because they permitted me to go and collect the passport from the Embassy," he said.

The incident of mismanagement of player-related crisis is the second in four months after that of former Dolphins’ star Emem Edouk over his transfer saga in January.