By Patrick Omorodion

Team Nigeria’ captain, Ike Diogu was voted among Africa’s top basketball players by a voting panel of journalists and technical officials of all the teams which participated in the Afrobasket concluded last night in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire but the organisers denied him the honour.

They claim that since he was not on ground at the venue of the closing ceremony at Palaise de Sports, he could not be honoured in absentia and so had to give it to another player, as one official who pleaded anonymity said the reason for the action was because “they wanted a group photograph of the players instantly.”

Ike Diogu

Diogu who was however, named the top scorer of the competition having amassed a total of 153 points with an average of 21.8 points per match in the seven matches he played and got a trophy for his efforts, said he was not informed of the award nor the ceremony so there was no way he could have made it to the ceremony.

“Nobody told me about any award and so I couldn’t have been there,” Diogu said, however adding that he was glad he got the top scorer’s award but stressed he would have been happier if Nigeria won the competition and got a ticket to the 2014 World Cup in Spain.

One of the assistant coaches who picked the top scorer’s award on behalf of Diogu, Ahmed Sani said it was unfair to deny the player an award he duly deserved since he was not told in advance to  prepare for the ceremony.

Meanwhile Angola defeated surprise finalist Egypt 57-40 to win their 11th Afrobasket title after they missed the 2011 edition to Tunisia. Their star player, Carlos Morais who scored 21 points on the night, was voted the Most Valuable Player, MVP of the championship.