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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Ahead of the proposed national congress of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), the crisis in the family has deepened among the stakeholders, the Ministry of Sports and the Musa Kida-led Caretaker committee.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development had on Monday issued a statement postponing indefinitely the earlier proposed election of the federation billed for Edo State by the Kida-led Committee.
However, reacting to it, Kida had specifically dismissed the decision of the Ministry, insisting that the congress must go ahead on October 30, as arranged.
But, speaking to Sports Writers in Abuja on Tuesday, Players’ representative, Stanley Gumut, had urged Kida to obey the decision of the Ministry.
Addressing newsmen along members of the basketball family, Gumut said: “We want to first appreciate the Ministry of Sport especially the permanent secretary. We have continued to demand that the right thing be done and until yesterday the Minister has shown us leadership and that he is a father ready to listen to us. Our prayer is that former Chairman, Musa Kida should stop parading himself as the Caretaker Committee Chairman so as to allow for fair play. “This is very important because if the situation continues to linger, we will not head anywhere.
I want to believe that the Ministry of Sports, the financier of sports in the country, who made him the Caretaker chairman and the ones that made him to dissolve the board.
“As the major actor, the Ministry should not allow him to impose himself on us like a dictator. The Nigeria basketball stakeholders cannot sitback and fold our hands and watch things go that way.
“At the end of this brouhaha, the leagues -male and female Premier teams that we have so missed in this country will get back to us, the national teams like the U-16, U-20, female and male teams,” he promised.
On what they intend to do if Kida continues with the arrangement to conduct the election, Gumut said: “I want believe strongly that the statement is not coming from him having seen him as a very smart person. He cannot go against the stand of the fededal government and it is very unfortunate for him to do so.
“The authorities have said that they are wading into it. And that us why we are putting our heads together to find a solution. Who told him that he cannot come back as chairman, but we insist that the documents he is parading must be looked into. We don’t care what is he doing because we are more concerned about what the Ministry says and decides,” he said.
