Former Magpie premiership player Heriter Lumumba has gone on a Twitter tirade after leaks from a Collingwood integrity commission

Collingwood premiership player Heriter Lumumba has accused his former club of spreading “misinformation about me behind the scenes” after a report suggesting he gave the OK for Magpies captain Scott Pendlebury to call him “chimp”.

Collingwood premiership player Heriter Lumumba has accused his former club of spreading “misinformation about me behind the scenes” after a report suggesting he gave the OK for Magpies captain Scott Pendlebury to call him “chimp”.

Lumumba has refused to be part of Collingwood’s integrity commission review, established by and being run by the club, in to his time at the Magpies in the wake of accusations of significant racial abuse.

A report on Tuesday night, which didn’t quote either Lumumba or Pendlebury, suggested the former defender had given the current captain the OK to call him “chimp”.

But Lumumba said if the investigation was already leaking misinformation, it had no chance of addressing his historical concerns.

“This is exactly why I refuse to be part of Collingwood’s so-called integrity commission. They continue to spread misinformation about me behind the scenes,” Lumumba said in a series of Twitter posts.

“If neither myself nor Scott Pendlebury commented for this story, where did the information come from? Who could possibly be leaking information about CFC’s investigation to journalists?

“CFC’s investigation has not even begun. Agreed terms of reference for the scope and scale of the integrity commission do not even exist. Yet someone is backgrounding journalists on initial findings and the direction of the investigation?

1) This is exactly why I refuse to be part of Collingwood’s so-called integrity commission. They continue to spread misinformation about me behind the scenes. https://t.co/v2zhvimuYE

— Hériter Lumumba (@iamlumumba) August 12, 2020

“I’m not shocked at all. Collingwood has a track record of attempting to discredit me publicly and privately.

“The club has repeatedly attempted to suggest that I was responsible for the anti-African ideas that were interwoven into the culture. This is what they told The Project in 2017 and what Eddie McGuire himself said on live television only a few weeks ago.

“My claims are about more than simply a nickname. I was called ‘black c*nt,’ ‘black dog,’ ‘ni**er,’ ‘slave,’ listened to the most outrageous racist ideas and jokes, got into verbal altercations and even physical altercations, and had the club’s PR machine weaponised against me.

“I’m not sure why CFC would want to drag its current captain into an ongoing racism scandal. There are clearly people willing to put their egos and careers above the growth of the club, and are more interested in smearing me than taking responsibility for their failures.”

Pendlebury also took to social media to question the report and said he would not be making any comment until the investigation was complete.