From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Basketball players in Abuja on Wednesday stormed the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development in numbers and staged a peaceful protest against the leadership crisis rocking the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF).
The players, along with the player representative on the NBBF board led by Musa Kida and NBA star Ejike Ugboaja, led the protest.
Speaking shortly after meeting with officials from the Ministry of Sports, Ugboaja lamented the tactics deployed by the Ministry of Sports to install Engr. Musa Kida as NBBF chairman, insisting players have long rejected him.
“They (the Ministry of Sports) don’t want to organize elections; all they want is to impose someone we don’t want. They are afraid of FIBA Africa and FIBA International as claimed by Sports Minister Sunday Dare.
“We, as players who have played in several World Cup tournaments, have represented Nigeria for the past 12 years; we can boldly say that FIBA is not Nigeria and we are not afraid of their banning. As things stand, if they impose a president on us, we’re going to ban ourselves from playing basketball.
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