By Oluwashina Okeleji BBC Sport, Lagos

Nigeria have failed to vote Jay-Jay Okocha for the 2004 Caf award

Nigeria captain Jay-Jay Okocha's hopes of becoming the 2004 Caf African Footballer of the Year have suffered a setback with coach Christian Chukwu admitting he did not vote.

It means that the Bolton player will have to rely on votes from other countries if he is to win the award.

The Super Eagles captain is one of the three players shortlisted for the award along with Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o Fils and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba.

Chukwu says he does not quite understand how he missed out on casting his vote.

"I'm really disappointed the way things turned out for Okocha and Nigeria," Chukwu told BBC Sport.

"The NFA's international department was supposed to get the forms from Caf and then pass them to me to vote but they have told me that they didn't arrive from Cairo.

"As far as I'm concerned that's the situation with me.

"To say I'm disappointed is an understatement because if we fail to vote our own, who else will."

The NFA chairman, Ibrahim Galadima admits he is equally disappointed.

"We at the NFA find the situation a bit funny, we've already started an investigation into the matter to find out if the letter did actually arrive at the office and who picked it up.

"We will get to the root of the situation because it is indeed a national embarrassment."

This is not the first such incident in Nigeria with Okocha and Chukwu both failing to cast their votes in the Fifa 2004 World Footballer of the Year.