Izuchukwu Okosi
Bayelsa State Commissioner for Sports, Daniel Igali, has raised dust on the integrity of the organisers of the 2022 National Sports Festival that ended on Saturday.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Games was concluded at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba with hosts Delta State emerging winners with 320 gold, 200 silver and 128 bronze medals.
Igali who represented Canada as a Wrestler during his active days in the sport spoke in a no-holds barred manner as the organisers bizarrely awarded 132 gold and 115 silver respectively instead of 109 gold and 105 silver medals to his state.
Igali expressed his reservations in a post on his Instagram page on Sunday, a few hours after the final medal table was released by the local organizing committee.
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“Team Bayelsa won 109 gold and 105 silver medals, not 132 gold and 115 silver medals. We will not accept medals we didn’t win. Thank you, but no thank you,” Igali stated alongside a video on the social media platform.
The host state and defending champions Delta edged 35 other states and the Federal Capital Territory to stay atop the Nigerian apex sports fiesta.
Edo, which hosted the festival’s 20th edition, won 78 gold, 94 silver, and 167 bronze medals to make it a South-South affair in the top-three ranking.
Team Oyo emerged fourth with 50 gold, 51 silver, and 62 bronze medals, while Lagos secured 41 gold, 57 silver, and 74 bronze medals to come in fifth.
Rivers completed the circle of all-Southern states’ dominance with 35 gold, 57 silver, and 117 bronze medals to occupy the sixth position.
Kano broke the Southern dominance with 19 gold, 27 silver, and 30 bronze medals to emerge seventh on the medals table.
Ogun, FCT, and Akwa Ibom emerged eighth, ninth, and 10th, respectively.
Zamfara, however, remained at the bottom of the table with no medal at the close of the 14-day event.
No fewer than 14,000 athletes participated in 38 sports at the festival.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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