Five track and field athletes who were arrested at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday over their allegiance and for ‘training at the facility without authorisation’ have been released, but their affiliation to the state ahead of the 2024 National Sports Festival is still hanging in the balance, The PUNCH reports.
The postponed 2024 National Sports Festival will be held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, from May 16 to 30.
One of the athletes, Niyi Ogunleye, won a medal for the state at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival.
In a chat with The PUNCH, Ogunleye explained that their arrest was premised on using the Ekiti State facility without authorisation and their plans to team up with other states ahead of the games after refusing to take part in the Ekiti State trials, which were held on April 2.
“What we asked was how much they would pay us if we represented the state. For instance, at the last festival in Asaba, I represented Oyo State and got about N300,000, whereas my colleagues in Ekiti got around N35,000. But this time, we are back home and knowing they might not be able to pay as much as other states, we just wanted to know,” Ogunleye said.
“On the day of the trials, they couldn’t give us any word, so we decided to skip the first trial and take part in the second trial, hoping that we would have the information we needed by then. They said there would be no trial again, and we asked to go and represent another state. That was when they said we would no longer be allowed to use their facilities.
“But we felt we were indigenes and we have been winning laurels for the state before now. We have been using it since then until Wednesday, when they started enforcing it, stating that we and our coach have been barred from training there. We were arrested afterwards.”
The Technical Adviser to Ekiti State Governor on Sports Development, Dr Olusola Osetoba, defended the arrest of the athletes, noting that it was a move to curb unnecessary unrest at the stadium.
“When they asked me about the amount we wanted to pay, I told them I was not going to commit, but we were going to pay athletes willing to represent us well,” Osetoba told The PUNCH.
“I was in my office on Wednesday when they called me that there was unrest at the stadium. The security had refused to let them in, asking them to call their coach. Since they had opted not to run for us, those in charge of the athletes say they want to focus on the athletes they are taking to the festival, so if you are not for us, don’t come around. They also wrote a letter to their coach to that effect, so his athletes could keep off.
“When they were trying to force their way in, the people around had to call the security outfits to arrest them. Three of them were released immediately after they became sober, and the other two were released on Thursday.”
