Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has released a statement denying earlier claims that they asked the Nigerian Athletic contingent to Rio 2016
Olympics to purchase their tickets themselves. Read the statement from
Dalung below…
WE DID NOT ASK ATHLETES TO BUY TICKETS TO RIO
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development says it did not direct
foreign based athletes going to the Olympic Games in Rio to buy their
own air tickets.The Minister of Youth and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung said this in a
statement following a purported mail asking athletes to buy their
tickets to the Olympics and which was said to have originated from the
Ministry.
Barrister Dalung stated that the Director, High Performance Angie Taylor
has been saddled with the responsibility of arranging for the flights
and movement of the foreign based athletes to and from Rio.“We did not write any mail asking athletes to pay their way to Rio. As
the overseers of sports in the country, it is our duty to take care of
all our athletes. The letter did not come from us and we will
investigate the writer of that letter. It does not represent our stand
concerning the movement of athletes to Rio and the writer or anybody
asking athletes to buy their tickets to Rio will be investigated. We ask
Nigerians and athletes in particular to disregard the mail” Dalung
said.The minister however regretted the embarrassment caused by the letter
and asked athletes to remain focused on their build-up to the Rio games.