Apologise Or Face Legal Action, Sports Minister Owan Enoh Tells Bash Ali

Sports Development Minister John Owan Enoh says except there is an apology, he will proceed with a legal action against a former World Boxing Champion, Bash Ali for making false claims against his person.

Bash Ali is alleged to have claimed in an ‘Open letter to president Bola Tinubu that Sports Minister John Owan Enoh demanded “For Another US$1M” one million dollars from him in order to endorse his plan to stage what he calls the oldest boxers fight in Nigeria.

Noting that Bash Alli had sought to impugn the character and reputation of some of his predecessors in office, without any shred of evidence, senator Owan Enoh said Bash Ali is bent on arm twisting the Federal Government to spend upwards of $50m USD to stage his fight which Successive Ministers of Sports have told him is not the responsibility of the government but a business that should be executed by the private sector.

As a response, Senator Owan Enoh, in a statement, revealed 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.

The minister concluded that should Bash Ali fail to do this, he will be left with no option than to approach the courts to clear his name and seek damages.

In the meantime efforts to get Bash Ali to speak on the matter yielded little as he could not be reached via telephone.

The story of Bashiru Lawrence Ali and his desire to put Nigeria on the map as the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history has been running for over fifteen years.

While many believe he has not much to offer in terms of actual ability to withstand the rigours of intense physical blow-by-blow exchanges in the ring, other experts insist that the Edo state born veteran of the fistic and pugilistic trade of boxing should be supported as he has what it takes to become the oldest man to win a professional heavyweight boxing title.

naptu2:


He's still trying to break the record for the oldest world champion. He tried to get funding from President Obasanjo to stage the fight in Nigeria. Obasanjo bought the idea at first, but pulled out after Bash Ali performed badly in a warm up fight (he didn't want to sponsor a suicide attempt).

Presidents Yar'Adua and Jonathan ignored him, so he turned to Ghaddafi for funding. He was in Libya when the crisis started and was one of the Nigerians that were evacuated by the Federal Government.

naptu2:
Bash Ali was one of my favourite boxers of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the early 2000s Bash Ali decided that he wanted to set the record of being the oldest man to win a world title. He initially got the support of President Obasanjo, but Obasanjo later pulled out after Bash Ali performed poorly in a warm up fight. Ali was beaten black and blue by another African boxer and Obasanjo decided that he did not want to sponsor a suicide attempt.

Since then, Bash Ali has been pestering every government to sponsor his world title attempt. He has frequently gotten into tussles with security aides of government officials. In 2013 the bodyguards of the then sports minister, Bolaji Abdullahi also roughened him up.

https://www.nairaland.com/1318416/bash-ali-manhandled-ministers-security

naptu2:


In fact, the problem actually started when Obasanjo was president.

Obasanjo had agreed to back his title fight. Then Bash Ali fought a warm up fight in Lagos. He was beaten black and blue by an unknown boxer. That's why Obasanjo pulled out. He didn't want to sponsor a suicide attempt.

Bash Ali has been harrassing government officials since then. He wants to force them to sponsor the fight.

This is the third or fourth time that he has been involved in altercations with government officials.

In fact, he got fed up of Nigerian officials and went to Libya to get Muammar Ghaddafi to sponsor his title fight. He was trapped in Libya when the uprising began and he had to be rescued by the Federal Government.

naptu2:
He's done this with almost every sports minister since the early 2000s.


He wants the Federal Government to sponsor his Guinness World Record fight, but the government has other more important issues to take care of, besides, it is not certain that Bash Alli will survive such a fight. Therefore, he has taken to accusing sports ministers of receiving money from government for the fight and stealing the money. He often goes to the Sports Ministry to cause a lot of trouble and this usually ends with security men having to throw him out of the complex. He has once again threatened to invade the premises of the Sports Ministry.

UselessBuharist:
The allegation cannot be totally false. Take a second look at whatever they deny

naptu2:
More

UselessBuharist:
The allegation cannot be totally false. Take a second look at whatever they deny

YorubaForum:
Good one.

Somebody should help this idiot below with some pair of cufflinks 🤣🤣

malvisguy212:
I don't understand how bash Ali is a former world champion. who did he fight to become world champion?