Hundreds of football-loving youths yesterday stormed State House in protest against what they referred to as "political interference" by the government into the election of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), thus calling for the immediate resignation of Sports Minister Paul Kamara, whom they claimed had prejudiced the outcome of the election by openly declaring his support for one of the aspirants, Mrs. Isha Johansen, against her opponents.

The irate youths, who were solidly behind Sierra Leone footballing icon, Mohamed Kallon, staged a peaceful protestagainstthe Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Normalization Committee's decision to disqualify Kallon, Rodney Michael and others from contesting thepresidency and other positions in the association's August 3rd elective congress.

Though the protest was peaceful, the group was, however, prevented from crossing the security post leading to State House to present a protest letter to President Koroma.

"We want to talk to President Koroma about what his minister and others have done to put our candidates out of the contest in favour of Isha. The minister is working with senior members of government to deprive our candidates; we will continue to protest until appropriate actions are taken," one of the protesters, Michael Kamanda, told Concord Times in the environs of State House.

Another protester, Mohamed Fofanah, also noted that Kallon and others have spent all their time and money to serve Sierra Leone and to upgrade the standard of football in the country, and therefore it was gross injustice for them to have been disqualified "onvery flimsy grounds".

"For a man like Mohamed Kallon, who has played for Leone Stars for 19 years, spent over 2 million dollars in football in Sierra Leone, and awarded the Order of The Rokel by President Koroma, to have been branded a drug addict by the Sports Minister and his ilk is sickening and disgraceful. This is pure injustice and selfishness," Fofanah sputtered.

Ibrahim Tamba, an observer -who said he is an avid supporter of increasingwomen'sparticipation at all levels of governance - howeverwarned Madam Johansen against accepting, in his own words, an "uncontested SLFA presidency".

"Mrs. Johansen has had a long and glorious association with football in Sierra Leone, and I applaud her for that. It's time for her to protect her image by saying no to any nefarious plans to foist on her the football family in Sierra Leone. If it was meant to be a Normalization Committee, what a misnomer it has turned out to be? It seems to me that things will get even more abnormal going forward," Tamba concluded.

It is still not known whether all the disqualified candidates will appeal against the decision though one of the SLFA presidential front-runners, Rodney Michael, had made it clear that he'll be contesting the decision using both local and international legal instruments.