Crisis Looms As Players, NBBF At Loggerhead Over Representative Election

Crisis Looms As Players, NBBF At Loggerhead Over Reps Elections By Niyi Busari The Nigeria basketball players are at loggerhead with the outgoing board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation over the Players Representative election scheduled for today. The players had on Thursday revolted against imposing player's representative on them, the protest that stalled the election from holding before rescheduling for Saturday. Speaking with BSN Sports on why the protested, the outgoing Players Representative, Ejike Ugboaja said, "There is no way they will do players election when it is being hijacked by the outgoing president of NBBF (Musa Kida) who suppose to step down before re-contesting." He said, "And Nigeria basketball has denied players their right. I was the former player's representative at the outgoing board and the way and manner they treated me was not right. They did not allow me to make decisions for the players. He added, "They want to conduct election because I think there was fraud, and we are going to stand for our right to make sure the player election will be fair and free. We will revolt against any attempt to manipulate the players election. "All the players have been grieving for four years because we did not see any basketball league in Nigeria. Our national team is being played by foreign players only because there is no league in Nigeria." He concluded. Meanwhile the NBBF in a letter stating reason for rescheduling and date of the election didn't name the venue for the election. In the letter made available to BSN Sports and signed by the Secretary General of the Federation, Afolabi-Oluwayemi Olabisi titled 'Postponement of Athletes And Technical Representatives Election' and dated September 30, reads, "I am directed to inform you that the Athletes and Technical Representatives election earlier scheduled to hold on 30th September, 2021 has been postponed due to players protest. A new date for the election has been fixed for Saturday 2nd October, 2021 by 11:00 am. The Federation hereby apologized for any inconvenience this might have caused." Experts have faulted the federation attempt to oversee players election stating that it is against the constitution. Article 21.7 of the NBBF Constitution frowned at the action of the Federation taking charge of players representative election. The article states, "For the members of the board, the relevant bodies must present their candidates whether by election or nomination according to their own internal procedure, to the Congress. And Congress shall accept such candidate by acclamation."