Chairman of the Main Organising Committee of the 2024 National Sports Festival and Director General of the National Sports Commission, Bukola Olopade, has revealed that eight more athletes will be expelled from the 22nd National Sports Festival, taking place in Ogun State, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Olopade revealed this while fielding questions during a press conference at the games media centre in Abeokuta on Tuesday.
The discovery of the new eight erring athletes comes after the disqualification of six athletes with various doping issues on Monday.
According to Olopade, the states had been informed of the athletes’ ineligibility.
“Out of the 10,000 registered athletes, we have discovered eight more, and we will name and shame the states. Enough of dirty sports in Nigeria, we have to get it right,” Olopade said.
While some states claimed that the athletes were not part of their travelling contingent to the games, the NSC DG maintained that they were registered.
“We have evidence to show that months ago, we informed the states of their athletes with doping issues,” Olopade said.
“The names on that list, we are going to impose fines on the states that brought them, because it is high time we stopped messing about with the organised systems of the country.
“All the names were extracted from the registration list by the states. So if they were not coming with that, why did they register them?”
Nigerian boxers, Cynthia Ogunsemilore and Dolapo Omole, were part of the six athletes who were first disqualified.
Ogunsemilore was provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance ahead of her opening fight at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and African Games champion tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list, in an out-of-competition doping control.
Ogunsemilore and Omole, who got their doping bans in boxing, were registered to represent Bayelsa State in kickboxing.
Other banned athletes are Marcus Okon, representing Akwa Ibom state in para athletics, Ayabeke Opeyemi, representing Bayelsa state in gymnastics, Kareem Shukurat, representing Lagos state in kick-boxing and Animashaun Sofia, representing Lagos state in para powerlifting.
