A foreign referee who has been caught in the vortex of Anas’ investigations into corruption in football cycles has expressed disbelief that Anas actually caught him on tape taking bribe.

Referee Thomas Jones (not his real name), who was caught on tape taking money to influence the outcome of a tough match said he was innocent if he was captured receiving bribe from Anas in particular but conceded he received the money from an old lady, and not Anas.

The old lady, he said, was a well-known football addict and it was from her hand that he received the money, not Anas, so “how could Anas claim that he had given him bribe and even had the process recorded on tape? “Is Anas not the man whose face is covered?” he queried argumentatively, “Would I not have recognized him? He is lying. He never came to me. Only the old lady came.”

His story was however muffled by the assertion of those who know that the said old lady was sick in bed at the time the referee said she had given him the bribe. Madam Zainab Ayishetu, a well-known football mother had not been in good health for quite a long time now and could not have been offering bribe to a referee. It is being speculated that it was Anas who used his powers to turn into the old lady that visited the beleaguered referee.

When this possibility was suggested to the referee, he hesitated in disbelief at first but said, indeed, something strange seemed to have happened at the time the old lady entered, saying, “Just before she entered, there was a strange gust of wind which opened the firmly closed door rather mysteriously, then the old lady entered almost automatically”.

He recalled that the old lady who could speak only her native tongue, spoke to him in clear English when they interacted. He had not thought about it until he related the incident after the accusation.

Those who know Hajia Ayishetu well said it could not have been her because she was not educated and could not speak English, so how could she have been speaking to the said Referee in English? It was agreed that it was Anas who took the shape of the woman.

Otherwise, how could he have had the interaction taped? Meanwhile, another victim of the Anas exposé also said, before the well-known person who gave him the money entered, there was a gust of wind that opened his locked door mysteriously, then he heard the knock at the door, only to see his good old friend who offered him money that is now about to be screened as his bribe taking episode.

Referee (name withheld) said when he approached the friend in question, he said he had never approached him with the said offer. The debate rages on. Does Anas have the powers to change into anybody or take anybody’s face? Then he must be a witch, it has been concluded. Also, if that is so then nobody he accuses should be indicted as he could change into anybody, like it now seems in the case of the Referee whose friend could not remember offering him a bribe.

Meanwhile, the old lady who is indeed bedridden and has been for a long time, when approached on the issue, could only mumble surprise in her local language as she wondered aloud how she who was so sick at that time could have been offering bribe to a Referee.