18th NSF: Amputee Footballers Want To Participate

Some Amputee footballers at the weekend in Lagos appealed to the National Sports Commission (NSC) to allow their sport to feature on a demonstrational basis at the forthcoming 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.

The athletes made the appeal in separate interviews with newsmen at the National Stadium.

A goalkeeper, Dare Kokoye,  said that he and his team mates had started training in anticipation of a favourable response to their request by the NSC.

“We are yearning to display our God-given talent through amputee football at the National Sports Festival, but this can only be possible if the sport receives the approval of the organising committee,’’ he said.

Kokoye said that amputee sport talents scattered across the length and breadth of the country needed to be harnessed and groomed to stardom.

His colleague, Ugochukwu Obieze, a striker, also said that amputee athletes needed to be meaningfully engaged in a vocation that would keep them away from mischief, hence their recourse to football.

“Amputee footballers are using this medium to tell people that we can make meaningful contribution to nation building in spite of our physical state,’’ he said.

Obieze wondered why amputee football could not be considered as one of the events that will feature at the sports festival, and implored the NSC to accord it recognition.

An out-fielder player, Chimobi Michael,  also asked why the local authorities were ignoring the sport which is recognised by the international Olympic Committee (IOC).

“Since we featured at the Nation’s Cup in Ghana, it does not speak well of the National Sports Commission that we are not part of our own National Sports festival, during which more talents can be discovered,’’ he said.

Michael said the participation of amputees at the festival would help to arouse the interest of others who are yearning for a viable medium to showcase their talents.