Some athletes and coaches that form the Edo State contingent to the just concluded National Sports Festival tagged Gateway Games 2024 are in a fix as the payment of the two weeks allowance promised them for the duration of the fiesta have not been fulfilled.
Information reaching this news desk is that flowing from the exposure on the issue which was broadcast on a live radio talkshow on Friday morning the Edo State Sports Commission management that night started crediting the account of the athletes and coaches with a 50 percent payment which is N119,000 instead of the N238,000 earlier promised.
Meanwhile, there is no sign that the Commission is thinking of keeping to its promise of paying some of the gold medalists at the fiesta an additional N100,000.
It’s alleged that some of the gold medalists have been settled while many others are still awaiting their own money. Worst hit in this regard are physically challenged athletes and coaches who have been systematically barred from meeting with the Chairman of the Commission, Desmond Enabulele, on the excuse that he is too busy to meet with them knowing that they (physically challenged) who mostly move with wheelchairs and crutches are not able to get easy access to his office which is located on the third floor of the office complex situated inside the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.
Team Edo came fifth on the medals table of the festival amassing 293 medals made up of 73 gold, 101 silver and 119 bronze.
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