Track, field judges threaten to down tools

By Ben Efe
Officiating track and field officials have threatened to do a sit-in today, at the 18th National Sports Festival to protest against non-payment of their remuneration and poor feeding arrangements.

Four days of competition at the Teslim Balogun Stadium and the adjacent National Stadium Surulere have been greeted by long faces of technical officials who claimed that they had not been paid any allowances and also refreshments have not been provided at the intervals.

“We have been here for almost a week and there has been no payment of allowances. Besides, we are not provided with any refreshments during breaks. We were told to go to theUniversityofLagosto have lunch as no provision was made for  on-field consumption.

“With the way things are going we may not get anything. So on Friday, we are going to do a sit-in to press home our demands,” said one of the technical officials at the Teslim Balogun Stadium yesterday.

Athletics Federation ofNigeriavice president Jide Josiah confirmed the development. He added that the federation would do its best to prevent a disruption to the process.

“Things are not the way they are suppose to be. At the last festival in Rivers, we were given a total package for our accommodation and feeding.

“But here we have all been lumped into theUniversityofLagos. It was the AFN president that gave up his Hotel room for me,” said Dr. Josiah.