LOC, MOC Apologise To Feuding States

The Main Organising and Local Organising Committees of the National Sports Festival have apologised to three states which had misunderstanding over accommodation at the games village.

Athletes from Abia,Borno and Lagos had misunderstanding at the games village over allocation of rooms for their athletes.

The secretary of the Main organising Committee of the festival,Alhaji Abba Yola told sportswriters in Port Harcourt yesterday that the Deputy-Governor of Rivers, Engr. Tele Ikuru had been mandated to write apology letters to the governments of the three states affected.

He said there were some security issues which were reported at the games village.

He said the incident that led to the  scuffle at the games village had been resolved and affected states allocated accommodation.

He said peace had been restored among the feuding   states.

“But,eventually,we were able to broker a peace between these three states.

‘’ After we left the games village with the deputy governor,there were some security issues that came about and it was not our intention really to have anybody injured, or anybody molested because the aim of the festival is to promote peace,harmony and unity among Nigerians.

‘’ But, there are human errors along the line which cannot be avoided but we had to act not because we really wanted to do that.

‘’ But, unfortunately ,the situation on ground did not allow us to do any other thing other than to ensure that law and order are maintained in the camp.

‘’ Because, we have told everybody here that we will not compromise on the issue of security and that is what we saw,there was flagrant abuse of this and we tried to intervene to ensure that things are put in order.’’ He said.

He said the accommodation at the University of Port Harcourt used as the games village was not enough to cater for  the 15,000 athletes and that additional accommodation would be secured for them at the state university of Science and Technology in Port Harcourt.

Yola said the moc and loc had put in measures to ensure such incident did not happen again.

‘’ As I speak to you here, the Deputy Governor of Rivers is on phone with his colleagues in Abia, Borno and Lagos apologising to them and assuring them that it will not happen again”, he said.