“Para Games: Kano Government pays Players, Coaches, Press Crew Allowances”.
The above was headlines of the publications from the journalists that were present at the premises of the Kano State Sports Commission where the payment of allowances of the Kano Team for the just concluded Second Edition, the 2023 National Para Games that took place in Abuja.
It was a mixed feelings situation as all the Para athletes and press crew that accompanied the Kano Team were smiling and happy following the receipt of their allowances, many others were sad as they were excluded from the payments.
Investigation by this site revealed that many officials that made the trip possible and successful were not remunerated, a situation which did not go down well with them.
The organizing secretaries that brought the coaches were omitted from the disbursement, the scenario which totally irked them.
Similarly, the coaches who identified and scouted, trained and shaped the athletes to do what they did for the state and were excluded from the payment, a situation which equally made them depressed.
Alas, the medical team, which is made up of licensed healthcare workers and professionals that provided medical assistance to the entire team day and night were not seen worthy to get their pay, an action which provoked all of them.
Even the drivers that were seconded from other ministries and MDAs together with the few ones of the commission did not get their pay.
Similarly, other accompanied officials who rendered different service to the entire team were equally not paid.
Those that were not paid were sad with the commission management for being selective and accused them of paying attention to only the press in order to stop them from exposing their bad leadership style.
“They simply paid the press to halt them from continuous airing, voicing and writing their dissatisfaction for not getting their allowances even after the event”, one of them explained.
Most of those that spoke to this site on condition of anonymity, were sad with their exclusion in the payment and blamed the Acting Chairman of the commission for covering his inadequacies by paying only the press and the athletes who he knows will not keep quiet.
But Bala Sani Shehu, the Acting Executive Chairman of the Kano State Sports Commission told the press that the Kano state government has redeemed its promise of paying the team and will pay other members of the team next week.
What is not clear is if the rest will get their pay next week as the chairman promised.
It could be recalled Kano Team left to Abuja empty handed with promised to be paid while in Abuja, the promise which did not yield result up to their return to Kano state.
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