Some states participating in the Fifth National School Sports Festival in Port Harcourt on Tuesday protested against the absence of Rivers athletes for screening.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the screening started late on Monday, a day after the opening ceremony, with many officials and state delegates complaining about the performance of the local organising committee.
They said that members of the committee were not around to complement the efforts of the National School Sports Federation in starting the games.
The Public Relations Officer of Team Delta, Lucky Obonariemu, said the contingent was ready to pull out because Team Rivers, the hosts, had not reported for the screening.
Obonariemu said most of the visiting contingents had been screened.
He said, “We have agreed among the states not to go ahead with the competition if Team Rivers refuses to present its athletes for screening after five days into the competition.”
The President of NSSF, Ibrahim Mohammed, had on Monday told reporters that he was not comfortable with the attitude of the organising committee.
Mohammed said the federation had not been getting the necessary cooperation of the committee which was important for the smooth conduct of the exercise.
“Honestly, I think there are people among the LOC who want to sabotage this competition. They are the LOC’s technical sub-committee and they are not here,” he said.
The president also berated the Rivers athletes, who had not submitted themselves for accreditation to make them eligible for the screening.
“You can see Team Rivers are not here; they have not taken part in all the formalities done so far and they are hosting. All other states are ready.
“I have spoken to the commissioner, I told him I wanted to see the
Director of Sports and the chairman of LOC Technical Sub-committee but none of them are here. To me, it is an attempt to sabotage our efforts,” Mohammed said.
Reacting, the Rivers Commissioner of Sports, Fred Igwe, said he had not been briefed about the development but was going to address the problem as soon as possible.