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19 November 2009
Abuja — Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Engr. Sani Ndanusa, has been disqualified from contesting for the presidency of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC).
The NOC Public Relations Officer, Tony Nezianya, disclosed this to newsmen yesterday in Lagos after the executive committee meeting to screen those seeking election into the NOC board.
The NOC election is scheduled for Dec. 9, 2009 in Dutse, Jigawa State.
He said that the minister was disqualified for not meeting the statutory requirement for the position of the NOC president.
Nezianya quoted article 26: 1:2 of the NOC to support Ndanusa's disqualification.
The article says candidates for the position of the president must have served in an executive position or at the level of a commission of an International Federation or the Commonwealth Games Federation for a period of at least four years.
"Ndanusa was elected as the first vice president of the Confederation of Africa Tennis on June 20, 2007 in Tunisia and so does not meet the mandatory four years," he said.
Nezianya said that the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) had been suspended from the NOC for electing Ndanusa in absentia.
He said this was in violation of the NSC guideline, which stated that candidate for election into the board of the sports federation should appear in person.
"The NTF president was not present at the venue and yet he was deemed elected.
"Ndanusa was not duly elected. The irregularity is intentional. Therefore, the NOC is suspending the board of the tennis federation.
"The suspension will not be lifted until a fresh election is conducted; the decision will be communicated to the IOC, ITF and CAT," Nezianya said.
He said that 19 candidates had signified intention to contest for the eight positions in the executive board.
Out of the 19 candidates, Nezianya said that 13 were cleared to contest, while five were disqualified.
He said that two of the four candidates for the position of the Secretary-General - rtd Navy Captain Babatunde Adedimeji and Prof. Olakitan De-Souza - were also disqualified.
According to him, Adedimeji is disqualified for being on the executive board of the Africa Weightlifting Federation for just a year instead of the mandatory two years.
He said that De-Souza was barred from contesting because of late submission of his application form and also for not being on the list of published Judo board members.
One of the candidates for the post of the Treasurer, Aliu Bappa, was also disqualified for being a co-opted member of Hockey Federation for the purposes of the election.
"He actually belongs to the Cricket Federation, which is not an Olympic sport.
"Such co-opted members shall have no voting right. It is just commonsense that if you cannot vote, you cannot be voted for," Neizanya said.
The NOC spokesman added that a former Sports Writer Association of Nigeria (SWAN) member, Olu Amadasun, was also disqualified for submiting his form three days late.
Bappa, however, told newsmen that he would go to court to stop the election.
"I will contest my disqualification in court. I will also mobilise sports federation presidents to look into the decision taken by the NOC executive and boycott their activities.
"This will ensure that NOC is completely dead in Nigeria," Bappa threatened.
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