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Football agent sues club, player over alleged breach of contract

By Yetunde Ayobami Ojo
07 January 2020   |   2:59 am
A football agent, Henry Ajamah, has dragged Nigeria’s international football player and Club - Brugge FC and a Belgium star, David Okereke, before a Lagos High Court

A football agent, Henry Ajamah, has dragged Nigeria’s international football player and Club – Brugge FC and a Belgium star, David Okereke, before a Lagos High Court, over an alleged breach of contract.
 
Ajamah who claimed to have picked up the football player from the street and nurtured him until he became a star, is demanding for his commission from the 8million Euro contract fee Okereke was recently paid by Clug Brugge FC.
 
Joined in the suit as co-defendants are FIFA agent and CEO of Pro One Sports Management Ltd, Ebenezer Itorho, Okereke’s legal guardian Napoleon and father Oke Okereke.

 
In his statement of claims, Ajamah averred that sometime in 2013, he came across Okereke who was then an amateur footballer in Lagos and offered to manage and promote his career.
 
He added that after consultation with Okereke’s guardian and subsequently his father, he took the responsibility of paying him a monthly allowance, buying sporting materials and bearing his training expenses before and during the 2014 Under-17 Camp where he was eventually dropped from the squad by the then Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke.
 
The claimant averred that in 2014, a Football College, Abuja, took the young star for a football exhibition games in Italy and Croatia, where he was spotted by some football scouts and eventually secured a deal with an Italian Football Club, Spezie FC in Serie B Division.
   
Ajamah noted that after a while, Okereke solicited his assistance for a better deal out of Spezia FC and he (Ajamah) subsequently secured the services of Itorho, who resided in Italy to help in getting the youngster a new club under a 50-50 commission sharing agreement.
 
According to the plaintiff, after Okereke initially reject an Italian national, Mr. Patrick Bastianelli, who was contacted for representing him as his agent, he (Ajamah) discovered that both Bastianelli and Okereke had connived to deprive him of his commission from his Club Brugge FC sign-on fee.
 
The claimant is amongst other things, asking the court for an order directing the 1st and 2nd defendants to disclose all material documents with respect to the contractual agreement between the 1st defendant and Mr. Bastianelli and to make all documents relating to the transfer deal available to him.

He is also seeking for an order compelling the 1st and 2nd defendants to pay the transfer commission to him in line with the 50/50 sharing formula as agreed, or an order directing the 3rd and the 4th defendants to pay same to the claimant as guaranteed by them.
 
Part of demand also includes an order directing the 1st and 2nd defendants to pay 21per cent interest on the sum per annum with effect from the date the said transfer commission was paid to the 2nd defendant and Bastianelli until the judgment is delivered.
 
In addition, Ajamah has also filed a separate motion seeking an order restraining the defendants jointly and severally from transferring all monies standing to the credit of the 1st to 4th defendants in 18 banks in the country pending the hearing and determination of the suit.

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