Athletics coach and former national hammer champion, Gabriel Opuana has lambasted organisers of the ECOWAS Games over the shoddy manner they handled Nigerian athletes during the event.

Some of the athletes who have seen big time at international events were reduced to the status of primary school pupils, when they were hosted in a ramshackle hostel in Nasarawa, about 45 minutes drive from Abuja. Whereas other countries athletes were put in hotels within the Federal Capital territory.

The athletes staged a protest and they threatened not to run, but for the intervention of Athletics Federation of Nigeria officials.

AThose who organised the games have no respect for athletes. They kept saying that there was no money, but there was money for some other things apart from athletes welfare. AThe whole event was just a sham, it goes to show the level of incompetence of some of the people employed by the sports ministry.

AAfter the athletes completed their events they had to wait for two hours for a bus to convey them for a 45 minutes journey to Nasarawa,@ said the coach.