15th October, 2010
For allegedly falsifying his age at the ongoing FIBA Afrobasket U-18 Championship tagged Rwanda 2010, Nigeria’s Godfery Moses has been banned. The Technical Committee of FIBA-Africa during its last sitting decided to ban Moses and a Congolese player, Makouana Ituoa. The federation said in a statement that the licences of the players have been revoked.
According to FIBA-Africa, the names of the players were submitted for the ongoing U-18 tourney since 18 August, 2010. The players had played some games for their respective countries in the Rwanda championship before they were banned. Moses, according to FIBA-Africa played for Nigeria against Mozambique, Rwanda, Algeria, Mali and Congo, while Ituoa played in Congo’s matches against Nigeria, Mali and Mozambique.
Following the ban of Moses, the Nigerian team are now placed at the bottom of the table with no point from five games. Congo are fifth with four points, Algeria fourth with seven points. Rwanda, who are the hosts have seven points and placed third. Mozambique are second with eight points, while Mali are on top with 10 points from the same number of games.
—Adebobola Alawode