The
Nigeria Table Tennis Federation has suspended Fatima Bello of Team
Lagos for three years following a dual registration at the 18th National
Sports Festival.
NTTF Secretary Segun Oguntade told the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday that Bello was registered for Delta and Lagos States.
According to the secretary, Bello was
licensed with Lagos State but took an appointment with Delta since April
2010 till September 2012.
Oguntade said, “Fatima is formally
registered with Lagos State in the books of the NTTF, only for Delta
State to lay claim to her as their athlete.
“We had an emergency meeting where it was
decided to suspend her from all table tennis events for three years,
with immediate effect.”
Oguntade added that all the matches she played and won would be awarded to the losers.
Meanwhile, Lagos State on Saturday won a
gold medal in the men’s table tennis team event after a thrilling match
with Rivers, winning 3-0.
Jide Omotayo, 17, finished the game for Team Lagos by defeating Paralympian medalist, Femi Alabi, in the last set of the match.
Omotayo told NAN that the gold won was to fulfill their promise to the Lagos State Government.
“We promised the state seven gold medals
and this is just a show of our determination and appreciation for all it
did to prepare us for the festival,” Omotayo said.
Omotayo said that he was able to out serve the Paralympian because he played to his coaches’ instructions.
“After the first round, the coach introduced new tactics for me to use and it led to my victory over an older hand in the game.
“And the impact of camping in China for a
month really exposed us to better ways of playing the game and gave us
an edge,” Omotayo said.
Also reacting to the match, Oladele
Kehinde of Team Rivers blamed their loss on the petitions against them
that led to the postponement of the match.
NAN reports that the match was postponed from November 30 to December 1 because of petitions against the team.
“We were demoralised with the fact that after preparing for the game on Friday, we were told that it had been postponed.
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