Rabiu Omaku
The Nasarawa State Chairman of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Comrade Isa Mohammed condemned the ill-fated treatment meted on some of its members attached to the Nasarawa state contingent for the recently held 2021 Aiteo Cup Finals in Benin City, Edo state.
The affected members are Isa Mohammed of the Nigeria Television Authority, Lafia,Kayode Babalola of the News Agency of Nigeria and Zubairu T.Lawal of Leadership Ayau.
SWAN Chairman expressed displeasure over the development and needed answers to why the Chairman denied them all the privileges while at Edo.
The Association appreciated the gesture of the Commissioner of Youth and Sports Developments, Othman Bala-Adam for carrying SWAN along with regards to activities of the ministry.
“We are however appalled by the conduct of some of the officials of the ministry recently in Edo state.
The statement further revealed that three members of the Association were duly invited by the Honourable Commissioner to join the state entourage to Benin City to cover the Aiteo Cup finals at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Sunday.
But even before the reached Edo state, arguments arose over their logistics between the ministry and the management of Nasarawa United led Isaac Danladi, which is pivotal in getting the best out of the Journalists.
Nevertheless, we carried out our duties despite the difficult situation we faced.
The statement accused the State officials of leaving Edo as early 4:00am as against the already agreed 6:30am after the state team’s painful loss to Bayelsa United and the change on the time of departure was not communicated to some of the Journalists that squatted in a room with the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Amos Eche.
The Journalists who were in the entourage woke up and found out that the entourage led by directors of the ministry had left the State, abandoning the members of the fourth estate of the realm to their fate.
The Chairman expressed anger over the attitude of the officials not considering the tight security beefed up in the State restricting movement from 6:00pm to 6:00am abandoned in the hotel.
The director in charge despite the plea to stop the vehicle so the Journalists could catch up with them was rebuffed. The barbaric behaviour of the officials is highly condemned and we demand an apology for the undignified treatment our members passed through.
We commend the state commissioner of Youth and Sports for intervening and finding an alternative transport means several hours later but insist that the inhumane treatment meted on our colleagues be addressed to prevent it repeating itself in future.
We will not sit idle and allow any negative element destroy the giant strides achieved and other efforts put in place by the Governor Abdullahi Sule administration to revamp the sports sector in the state for effective service delivery, the Chairman of SWAN in the State, Isa Mohammed said.
