The Kwara State Director of Sports, Mallam Tunde Kazeem has described the omission of Joy Abu, a 400 metres Hurdler from the All African Games’ list as both fraudulent and unfortunate.
Speaking with sports writers on the development, which has elicited serious reactions from various stakeholders in the country, the Director, who is the Chairman of Directors of Sports Forum in Nigeria, said that the Kwara based athlete was cheated by the omission.
‘It’s very unfortunate. We need to ensure we put the name of the country first, above individual interests’, he said.
‘We did a follow-up, but discovered that she was not even listed on the long list, with the claim that she came third in the last trials ahead of the decision on the final list, but we all knew that sentiment had been applied’, he explained further.
‘She was worried, we are also worried, but I told her to take it easy. If we start perpetrating fraud, we are soiling our integrity, and this will definitely affect our performance at the Games’.
The Federation revealed that even though Joy Abu came first at the trials held in Abuja, she came third in another trial held in Kaduna, and cannot be considered, as even the second placed athletes was not considered.
Findings revealed that the list had already been submitted, meaning that the Hurdler will not make the list after all.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Kwara Athletics Association, Alhaji Tunde Abdulkareem in his reaction to the development said “we are sadden over cheating of our darling girl Joy Abu, a 400 metres Hurdler who was excluded from the All African Games list at the expense of Rita.”
He claimed that Joy has the best time this year and 7th in Africa, while Rita, who was 11th in Africa is on the list.
Abdulkareem is the immediate past Vice President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and CAA Region 2.
