Absence of duly constituted board for the Kwara State Athletics Association, (KSAA), open fraternisation with banned Athletics Coach, Hammid Muritala, by the Kwara State Sports Commission, and alleged secret engagement of the disgraced trainer are believed to be reasons why Athletics Federations of Nigeria, (AFN), placed indefinite ban on athletes from the state.
AFN on Friday banned athletics activities in the state, after it emerged that Coach Hammid Muritala, serving a 10 year ban after admitting to have injected an amateur athlete with banned substance, was spotted with Kwara’s contingents in Benin during two day AFN Golden League meet.
Bolakale Magaji, chairman, KSC has found himself in the thick of media backlash since Friday even though he has tried to distance the commission from the sanction.
Revelations, however, puts the blame squarely at the feet of the commission after it failed to fully inaugurate the board of Kwara State Athletics Association.
The association is currently run by a secretary answerable to the chairman of the Commission, Bolakale Magaji.
“AFN had to act because athletics in Nigeria could be sanctioned by the International Athletics Federation, if nothing is done to show that we are not in support of what Kwara has done,” explained an AFN official who spoke on the matter but can’t be mentioned because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the body.
According to the AFN source, stakeholders have been inundated with pictures and videos showing that the disgraced coach Muritala has been engaging in athletics activities in Ilorin with full acquiescence of the sports commission.
“There were videos of him still training athletes in the stadium which is directly supervised by the commission; there were even photos of Muritala at Kwara State Sports Commission organised really to support the governor at a time when he was serving the ban.
“We even learnt that Muritala is on a short term contract the the banned coach.
“Even if we don’t believe all these, how about his presence with Kwara Athletes in Benin,” asked the source rhetorically.
But Mogaji insists that his commission shouldn’t be held responsible for the ban.
In response to the outrage over the ban, the chairman stated in a WhatsApp group administered by sports journalists and stakeholders that what was happening was a media orchestration to tarnish his image and that of the commission he runs.
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth.
“They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power because they control the minds of the masses,” he said on the platform.
According to him, Coach Muritala was suspended from coaching from 2022.
“The association secretary, Coach and head of Coaching department was issued a query last week for allowing the said Coach to travel in our vehicle with the team,” he said, invariably admitting that KAA, as currently constituted, is under his control.
He was however silent on why a full board hasn’t been inaugurated for a critical sports federation as KAA
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