Wrangles rear ugly head at Leopards as Opwora spends night in police custody

Former AFC Leopards co-chairman Mathews Opwora and Suleiman Angulu spent Sunday night at Kilimani police cells after they were locked in for alleged impersonation and misappropriation of funds.

The duo was arrested and taken to the Kilimani Police Station, with Opwora purported to have “taken over” leadership of the club from the current officials.

The two were however set free on Monday morning for “lack of a case” since no statement had been recorded by the Leopards officials.

Confirming his arrest, Opwora said: “There is no evidence to show that we have been receiving money from fans.

“The elections that were held in 2016 were not called by the club but by the sports tribunal when we were Co-chairs with Dan Mule”,Opwora said.

In an interview with our sister station Mulembe FM on Saturday, Opwora said that he together with his team –   Moses Wanami, Susan Wamalwa and Noah Wanyama –   are not going to take a back and watch as the club take a fall.

His remarks come in the wake of the sacking of Argentine coach Rodolfo Zapata who has since been replaced by Serbian Nicola Kavazovic

In a separate interview, Organising Secretary Timothy Lilumbi rubbished reports that the Opwora group has staged a ‘coup’ at the club noting that the current office’s mandate expires in July 19 next year when elections will be held.

“In our constitution, elections are supposed to be held after every three years and we were only elected in office in 2016.

“This time around we will be very firm on this so that ‘watu wengine’(some people) ‘wajifunze’(learn) on this.“It is not going to be business as usual,”warned Lilumbi

Lilumbi also accused Opwora and his group of embezzling Ksh 1.8 million, claiming the latter wrote a letter to the Sports Dispute Tribunal confirming his commitment to paying back the cash .

“Those people( Opwora and Co.) withdrew Ksh 1.8m when they were going out of office and we even have a letter which Opwora himself wrote before the tribunal stating that he will pay the money which he has not yet.

“We are planning to write to the Director of Public Prosecution on the same, people will be arrested and locked in,” growled Lilumbi .

In the meantime, Opwora has alleged that the current Leopards leadership under chairman Dan Mule and secretary Igaida Oscar have not performed to the expectations but instead led the club to a sorry state.

“We want our team to return to the golden days, we are not going to wait for elections.

“We have no single AFC Leopards turning out for Harambee Stars and that is unacceptable,”Opwora added.