10th March, 2014
Taiwo Adelu
The Lagos State government has read the riot act to age cheats and the use of mercenaries in schools sports tournaments in the state.
One of measures to curb these cankerworms is the use of a Data Bank to capture real information on all the state’s athletes right from individual school.
Director of Sports in the Lagos State Sports Council, Dr. Kweku Tandoh said that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola is keen on ensuring that the state stands out in sports discipline and believes that if Lagos must win or take the centre stage in any national tournament, this must be done in transparent and honest ways.
Tandoh said “if we must ensure proper development at the grassroots, issues of age cheat must be must handled right.”
According to the Secretary of the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012, “the Sports Council is building a Data Bank which will be used for the state’s sports festival, the IBILE GAMES 2014 which holds from 30 April to 10 May and other future schools sports competitions. We have set up a Resource Centre at the Rowe Park, Yaba. I’m happy to say that this Centre is powered by a leading telecommunication company in the country. We are having software that will capture detail information of our athletes right from their schools so that at any time now or in the future anybody can access this information which will be true.”
Dr. Tandoh also disclosed that the government has handed down warning to principals of public secondary schools to stay away from using mercenaries and indulging in age cheating in any of the schools sports competition.
He said any principal whose student is caught as mercenary or indulging in age cheat will be sacked, while the student will also be sent out of the school.