2024 NSF: Team Edo Raises Concerns Over Poor Management, Other Issues
The Acting Permanent Secretary of the Edo State Sports Commission, Mrs. Agharese Patricia Efe Amenze, has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the management of the ongoing National Sports Festival tagged Gateway Games 2024 holding in Ogun State.
In a chat with journalists, Mrs. Amenze highlighted several challenges faced by Team Edo at the festival. According to her, “Edo has become the team to beat by other states. Even states that are not contenders are contending with our state.”
Commenting on the welfare of Team Edo athletes, she decried the poor quality of feeding provided at the games.
“I noticed that there’s poor feeding. Some of our athletes have been stooling. The kind of food being served has not been favourable,” she revealed.
Amenze also raised issues about officiating, describing some decisions as “ridiculous.”
“For instance, during the Kungfu event, Edo State had to hold the officiating officials to ransom for about three hours before judgment was finally given in our favour,” she recounted.
“In several areas, we have not been pleased with the conduct of referees and judges. I urge the Main Organizing Committee (MOC) to address these lapses in future editions of the festival,” she added.
She lamented the influence of politics in sports, saying, “From what I see, politics has eroded sports, and that’s a dangerous path. It won’t help us. We must work to remove politics from sports if we truly care about sports development and the dreams of our children. We hope for a better future for all of us.”
On the discrepancies between the official medals table released by the MOC and Team Edo’s internal records, she stated: “We have our own records. Thank God we are veterans and know what we are doing.”
“We keep daily records, and when we compare them with the MOC updates, we notice inconsistencies. We’ve made formal complaints and were assured that the medals table would be updated. So, we’re waiting,” she said.
Despite the setbacks, Mrs. Amenze expressed optimism about the performance of Team Edo.
“The festival is still ongoing, and by God’s grace, we’re going to win more gold medals,” she concluded.
So far, Team Edo has secured 17 Gold, 47 Silver, and 40 Bronze medals—amounting to a total of 104 medals—with several events still underway. The festival is expected to conclude on May 30, 2025.
