Agharese Patricia Efe Amenze, the functioning Permanent Secretary of the Edo State Sports Commission, has exposed the anomalies that characterise the ongoing National Sports Festival tagged Gateway Games Ogun 2024.
In a chat she averred that Team Edo has become the team to be beaten by other states adding “even states that are not contenders are contending with our state.”
Talking about feeding of Team Edo athletes at the fiesta, she disclosed that it’s poor.
“I notice that there’s poor feeding. Some of our athletes have been stooling. The kind of food they have been serving them have not been too favourable,” she divulged.
Agharese disclosed that officiating in some areas there have been poor “at a time in Kungfu, Edo State had to hold the officiating officials to ransom for about three hours before the judgment was in our favour.
“In some areas we have not been very pleased with the way the referees or judges have been operating. It’s my wish that the MOC(Main Organizing Committee) in future should overhaul these areas.
“To me I am seeing a lot of politics in sports. But it will not help us. We just need to try to bring it down. We are talking about sports development. So that our children’s dreams will not be killed. We wish that a better tomorrow will be there for all of us.”
On the discrepancies between the medals table been made public by the MOC and the reality of what’s obtainable, she said: “We have our own records. Thank God we are veterans. We’re very good in what we’re doing.
“We keep records on daily basis and when we do comparison with what we have from the MOC it’s like the update is not done every day. We have gone there to complain and they gave us their words that they will definitely upgrade the medals table. So, we’re waiting.”
She enthused that there are still hopes of Team Edo coming out tops “the game is still on so we’re going to get more gold medals by His grace.”
