Officials of the National Anti-Doping Committee (NADC) on Thursday in Ilorin gave a talk on the dangers associated with doping to athletes at the ongoing National Youth Games (NYG).
Fadeke Fadeyi, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of NADC, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the lecture was to ensure that athletes had an understanding of what constitutes doping.
“This is information and education activity for the children at the NYG for them to understand what doping is.
“We want them at this age to imbibe the culture of dope-free sports and to know that using drugs is not the right attitude in sports.
“And that, as they begin to advance and chose a career in sports, they have to know all these things,” Fadeyi said. She added that the urine samples of some athletes had been taken already, to be tested at the accredited laboratory.
“We cannot state the status of the athletes we took samples from for testing, because we will have to send the samples for analysis which won’t be done in Nigeria’’. Fadeyi, however, noted that penalties would be handed down to any athlete found guilty and anyone found to be an influencer on the athlete.
“For an under-15 to have an understanding of the drugs we are talking about, it means he has been influenced by somebody. “So, the penalties will be stiffer for whoever is found to be an influencer, while there will also be penalties for the athlete for him to know it is not good. “They will be banned for some years. But this will all be subjected to investigation on the type of drugs used and the circumstances under which it was used,” she said. (NAN)
