Sierra Leone Sports: Athletics Elective Congress ends in fiasco

Sports

The much anticipated elective congress of the Sierra Leone Athletics Association ended in fiasco yesterday when Sports Minister Paul Kamara announced that Palo Conteh, one of the candidates for the presidency was not qualified to contest the election. He based his assertion on the Sierra Leone Constitution Article 56 (3) which he said that no Minister or Deputy Minister should contest for position in any election organizes by various associations. In his statement, the Sport Minister said the last time some members in the association disrespected and ignored the decision of the 7 man committee set up by the National Sport Council and the National Olympic Committee and organized an illegal election where they selected Palo Conteh to be the president of the association. He said they broke away because they did not respect the Sport Council Act and the government. He said they wanted to confront the minister of sport and the sport council. He added that they also want to disrespect President Ernest Bai Koroma who is also the President of the National Sport Council. “If this was not so you should have respected the decision of the NCS and NOC. Believe me, in anything we do in life we must learn to respect each other on how to go about things,” he said. “We suspended indefinitely all those who acted against our command because we want sanity in the game. We are not here to enslave the association but each and every association should adhere to what we say. If you don’t want to comply leave the association”. “I also want to make it clear that those who think it is political interference are lawless, they are not listening to the warnings of the government, ” he yelled. “That is why because I don’t support political interference, even though I don’t believe in that but for once I will agree with that and make it clear that no politician will contest this election. And I want to make it clear that the NERC Coordinator ‘cannot and will not’ contest this election, “he concluded. The entire election ended in chaos as the delegates were throwing abusive languages at each other, whilst the minister was attacked by delegates and athletes together with Palo Conteh. It was alleged that the Paul Kamara was slapped during the process when he was exiting the election hall. After sometime they attacked him at his Stadium hostel room and allegedly threw stones and vandalized the windows. By Bernard Turay Wednesday December 16, 2015

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