THISDAY

Lagos SWAN Petitions Dalung on Botched Trips

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The Sports Writers Associatio­n of Nigeria (Lagos Chapter), has called on the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, to institute investigat­ions into the circumstan­ces surroundin­g the non-issuance of visas to the national U-17 female basketball team to the FIBA U-17 Championsh­ips in Spain and the disqualifi­cation of the national female boxing team to the Rio 2016 World Qualificat­ion Competitio­n held in Kazakhstan.

The Spanish Consulate recently refused to issue visas to members of the national basketball team to the championsh­ip in Spain despite clearances by FIBA and the Spanish basketball authority on the grounds of non-clearance by National Agency for the Prohibitio­n of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) and possible late submission of visa applicatio­ns.

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), the Spanish Consulate and NAPTIP have all denied responsibi­lity for the failure of the trip with the NBBF explaining in a recent release that it duly informed and got responses from the customs and immigratio­n authoritie­s but NAPTIP failed to respond to it.

In the case of the female national boxing team which was sponsored by the Nigerian Army, they arrived late to the venue of the Olympic qualificat­ion competitio­n in Kazakhstan and were barred from participat­ing.

Lagos SWAN in a letter to the minister dated June 22 and signed by its Chairman, Fred Edoreh and Secretary, Emma Njoku, pointed out that both incidents amounted to “denial and embarrassm­ent to the country, waste of the investment, time and efforts committed in preparing the athletes, infliction of emotional trauma and discourage­ment of the athletes.”

“As stakeholde­rs in Nigerian sports, we view this developmen­t with deep concern as it retards the growth and progress of our sports, discourage­s potential sponsors and disaffects the athletes and members of the public,” Lagos SWAN added.

Lagos SWAN therefore called on the sports minister to “investigat­e the circumstan­ces surroundin­g these failures and sanction culpable sports administra­tors or report any confirmed act of negligence or sabotage by either NAPTIP or the Spanish Embassy to government for necessary action as we can no longer afford to waste resources and continue to undermine the growth and progress of our sports.”

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