I wasn’t there: Nyoka

Luke Masomere, yesterday presented his passport to prove that he never travelled to Vietnam as the Warriors’ head of delegation in 2007.
Masomere told the Zifa investigating committee, which looked into the Asiagate scam, that Nyoka – a former Zifa councillor and Five-Aside-Soccer-League secretary-general – was the leader of the Warriors who travelled to Vietnam for the Agribank Cup that year.

Masomere’s testimony, which was not handwritten but was presented through an interview conducted by the Zifa investigating committee, also suggested that he was an island of innocence, in an ocean of corruption, where the visiting delegation turned into pawns for match-fixing agents.
Yesterday Nyoka denied travelling with the Warriors, as implied in the final Asiagate report, and presented his passport to buttress his position that he was not part of the touring party.

“All I just want to do is to clear my name that has, unfortunately, been tarnished by the report, which claims that I was in Vietnam in 2007 with the Warriors as their head of delegation,” said Nyoka.
“I believe the position presented by the Zifa committee, and fed to them by coach Luke Masomere, is not only wrong but has been fuelled by a lot of malice on the part of either the committee or the coach or, possibly, the two parties working in tandem.

“I think the spirit of justice should have persuaded the Zifa committee to just check with me, and also to interview me on the statements made by Masomere, so that they get a balanced story that could have helped their investigations.

“For them to just bank on what Masomere was telling them, and take it as the truth, is an insult to my reputation and also raises questions about the credibility of their exercise.
“When my name first came out, in The Chronicle last year, following an interview carried out by Masomere and the same committee, I raised this issue with them and asked for a retraction.
“Almost eight months down the line, the same issues crop up again, without being corrected and you can tell that this is no longer a mistake by a position taken by a group of people just to try and tarnish my name.”

Nyoka said he couldn’t understand how Masomere might have made such an error, in dragging his name into Asiagate, when they had turned into close friends during a tour of Ghana, in 2004, when he was head of delegation of Dynamos during a Caf Confederation Cup game.

“As a Zifa councillor then, I was appointed head of delegation for the Dynamos team on their trip to Ghana where they were playing King Faisal in a Caf Confederation Cup tie in 2004 and Luke Masomere was the DeMbare coach,” said Nyoka.
“We became very close during that trip because I remember that we landed in Accra and had then to travel to Kumasi where the game was being played.

“I was the one with the official car and I used to extend it to the coaches whenever they wanted to go on their missions in the town.
“So, against that background, there is no way that Masomere could have a mistaken identity, in as far as I’m concerned, which can only lead me to believe that he must have been driven by malice or, possibly, might have been quoted out of context.

“But the damage has already been done and it’s up to Masomere and the Zifa committee to clear my name and I have already discussed the issue with my lawyers and we will see how the story develops in the next few days.

“I don’t condone corruption and I have spoken against it a number of times but it is unfair for my name to be used and it’s funny that Masomere is even saying I wasn’t aware of anything that was happening in Vietnam when I wasn’t there.

“He is making a judgment on me, when I wasn’t where it was all happening, and I think he has a bit of a credibility problem.”