The Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, has condemned the unpleasant treatment of the national women senior football team, the Super Falcons, on their return to the country from Cote d’Ivoire, Thursday morning.

The Falcons returned to Abuja from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday, where, just a few hours earlier, they picked a priceless ticket to the African Women Cup of Nations tournament to be hosted in Morocco in July.

In widely circulated videos trending on social media, the footballers and their officials were seen going through difficult times at the airport.

They were delayed for about four hours owing to Covid-19 protocols and later the locking up of all terminal exit doors for a totally different reason.

One of the players, Uchenna Kalu was seen lying on the floor, in pain and dire need of medical attention.

Dare, clearly disappointed with the incident, said a complete account of what happened has been received by his office and the Ministry will send it to the National Centre of Disease Control(NCDC) and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) to thoroughly investigate the matter and ensure that our footballers, sports men and women are treated fairly and respectfully.

The Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) will meet with the relevant authorities to review and ensure that this type of situation does not happen again.

Vanguard News