The departure programme of the Imo State National Sports Festival Team was on Sunday morning delayed for hours due to unpaid camping allowances.
Trouble started when all the athletes billed for the “Eko 2012” games that is scheduled to commence officially on Tuesday November 27, refused to bored their buses in protest of the 7 days camping allowance that was giving to them instead of the 3 weeks allowance the athletes were asking for.
‘Imo Trumpeta’ scoped that the athletes were giving seven thousand naira (7,000) for the 7 days camping exercise which lasted from Monday November 19 to Sunday November 25.
It would be recalled that the athletes after having a closed door meeting with the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Hon Kenneth Emelu two weeks ago, had threatened to demand for 3 weeks (21 days) camping allowance claiming that they had been training before the camp was officially opened by the commissioner last Monday.
Meanwhile, the cycling team and the female football team who had left for Lagos earlier on Saturday were not part of the protest which took the timely intervention of the commissioner before they finally accepted to embark on the trip to Lagos with condition.
Inside information reaching our sports desk dose indicate that the athletes were persuaded to bored their buses as arrangements will be made to off set their allowances by Wednesday this week, the source revealed.
Some of the events at the “Eko ‘12” games were billed to start on Monday 26 ahead of the opening ceremony today, which the host state Lagos described to be an eye catching event.
