Senate C'ttee moves to probe Dalung, NOC over failure in Olympics

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Obinna Ogba, said the Minister of Sport, Solomon Dalung and the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) has cases to answer in the abysmal performance of Nigeria’s team at the just concluded Olympics 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Ogba attributed the poor performance of the athletes to a lot of factors ranging from funding to logistics, recalling that his committee had invited the Minister of Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalong who repeatedly told the committee that funds were released to that effect.

Ogba said; “My committee intends to invite the NOC to come and brief us on the Olympics. Apart from the late arrival of our athletes’ kits, you can see even our national anthem at the opening ceremony was the wrong one. So, all these, we are going to find out what happened when we resume,”.

Ogba also criticised the football team for collecting $390,000 donation by a Japanese plastic surgeon, Dr. katsuya Takasu. Ogba explained that it was inappropriate to receive that money, stressing that as responsible Nigerians, they ought to have verified the authenticity of the money and personality involved before accepting it.

He noted; I am speaking in my personal capacity that it was wrong for our players to have collected the money because we don’t know the person and the source of his money. So we would have found out from their authority before anything,”

“I don’t think it was nice for our country to accept such money given the happenings around world now. Money is good but it’s not every money that comes your way that you collect. So, I associate myself fully with the President of the Nigeria Football Federation,”.