MOC favours Edo,Bayelsa may be banned

The Federal Ministry of Sports and Social Development have given the Edo State female basketball team the go ahead to continue with their participation at the 2004 National Sports Festival in Abuja,Nigeria,nigeriasports.com can now reveal. Edo who started their campaign for honours with a 65-21 points victory over Borno, initially had to tarry following an attempt by the Bayelsa State squad to disrupt a game involving the ladies from Benin City. Officials from Bayelsa claimed that their team rather than Edo should be featuring in the competition. Reportedly,Edo had qualified to play at the festival after Bayelsa was disqualified for fielding an ineligible player at the Zone II of the festival qualifiers.But the Bayelsans were said to have filed a counter protest accusing Edo State of parading an ineligible player at the same tournament. The Nigeria Basketball Federation[NBBF] subsequently disqualified the two teams following the latest fissure over the propriety of either of the teams to participate at the festival proper. However,sources at the sports ministry confided in nigeriasports.com that the sports authorities who incindentally are the main organisers of the festival had ruled in favour of the Edo State team because of what the ministry considered as unruly behaviour on the part of the Bayelsans. "Actually the Edo girls have to thank their director of sports whose influence more than anything else secured their continued participation in the festival.It was Brown Ebewele who worked on top officials of the ministry,"revealed the source. Meanwhile indications are rife that the Bayelsa State female basketball side may be bared from taking part in the next two editions of the sports festival, as the disciplinary panel of the festival makes move to unleash its hammer.
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