Daily Independent Online.
*
Friday, July 02, 2004.
Fire forces disabled athletes to relocate
By Pius Anakali
Senior
Correspondent,
Calabar
Athletes and
officials got a big shock Thursday morning when they got to the venue of their
event and found the place under lock and key, with police men manning the
entrance to the centre.
The closure of the
venue followed an overnight fire, which razed part of the building where
disabled athletes were competing.
The fire incident
forced the athletes taking part in two main events,Table Tennis and Power
lifting to relocate to the Squash Court at the U J Esuene Stadium in Calabar.
Though the cause of
the fire is yet to be determined, Daily Independent learnt that the fire must have been caused by
an electrical fault, while some
blamed it on saboteurs who are not
satisfied with the goings on in the state.
"We cannot
tell you the cause of the fire now", said an official attached to the
Cultural Centre He, however, noted
that it might be the handiwork of hoodlums who were not happy with the goings on at the games sponsored by
Delta State first lady, Nkoyo Ibori.
It was also gathered that officials
attached to the sports commission are not too happy with a situation where the
Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and organisers of the yearly
championship, brought in officials from Lagos and Delta State for an event
taking place in their state.
Despite the delay
caused by the early morning confusion, the special athletes have rounded up
their programme for the day while others would complete theirs early Friday
morning.
Though, no official
medals table has been released as regards the special event,Daily
Independent gathered that Delta is still topping the list of medal
winners.
