Kwara auxiliary athletes yesterday protested over unpaid 15 month N8,000 stipends as they also blocked the entrance into the state Stadium Complex in Ilorin.
The athletes who carried placards with inscriptions like “Stop cheating us pay us our 15 months stipends” Pharmacy Ayo Kale (Commissioner), you know nothing on Sports development, go back to chemist.ý
“Police you may shoot us but our blood will fight such a police or security person” among others.
The Spokesman for the athletes, Oyadirin Felix, said they are Kwara Ambassadors who have been representing the state for the past 20 years without employment.
He said the state government also stopped the N8,000 stipend going to some of the athletes under the Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES) for the past 15 months.
Felix explained that they had met with the state Chief of Staff, the Commissioner and the Director of Sports without any positive results to resolve the issue amicably.
“The Commissioner is our problem because since he assumed office, we had made several attempts to dialogue and chart way forward but has always turned our request down.
“To our surprise, they paid people on Tuesday without paying any of us. They are playing with our intelligence. We also have children and family to take care of as well.
“We want to be responsible to our family. We want to celebrate Sallah too. Other staff have been paid leaving us out, that was why we had to block the stadium entrance today, so that outsider will know what we are going through,” Felix said.
Reacting to the issue, the state Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Mr. Kale Ayo, said the state government’s decision to suspend the KWABES programme affected some of the athletes.
He said he was not aware of the 50% allowances for Eko 2012 as claimed by the athletes.
Ayo confirmed that the sum of N96,000 was paid to 6 of the athletes on Wednesday morning.
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