Events scheduled for Wednesday at the 22nd National Sports Festival gradually commenced, nearly four hours behind schedule, following the reopening of the games village at Babcock University by protesting Ogun State athletes, PUNCH Online reports.
The athletes had earlier blocked the gates of the games village, leaving several participants stranded in protest over unpaid allowances. They began their demonstration as early as 5:30 am and reopened the gates at 12:43 pm.
PUNCH Online gathered that the athletes received payments of N40,000, as promised by Governor Dapo Abiodun, along with an additional N140,000 as their festival allowance.
However, the athletes insisted that the agreed allowance was N210,000, calculated at N15,000 per day over a 14-day period.
“We were paid N50,000 this morning, which was the governor’s promise, but to our surprise, they started paying N140,000 as the festival allowance instead of the agreed N210,000,” one of the athletes lamented.
Meanwhile, prior to the start of the sports festival, Governor Abiodun pledged cash rewards of N2.5 million for every gold medallist from the state, N1.5 million for silver, and N1 million for bronze medallists.
Ogun State currently holds third place on the medals table with 48 gold, 38 silver, and 47 bronze medals.
