Gateway Games: Protesting Ogun athletes delay Wednesday activities for four hours over unpaid allowance

Events scheduled for Wednesday at the 22nd National Sports Festival commenced nearly four hours behind schedule.

This was caused by the protest organised by Ogun State athletes, who blocked the main entrance of Babcock University over unpaid allowance for the ongoing games.

The athletes since 5am blocked the main gate of the camp preventing vehicular movement, leaving many states stranded.

The protesters did not open the gate until 12:43 pm.

The athletes later received payments of N50,000 promised by Governor Dapo Abiodun, along with an additional N140,000 as their festival allowance.

However, the athletes insisted that the agreed allowance was N210,000, calculated at N15,000 per day over a 14-day period.

“We were paid N50,000 this morning, which was the governor’s promise, but to our surprise, they started paying N140,000 as the festival allowance instead of the agreed N210,000,” one of the athletes lamented.

Meanwhile, prior to the start of the sports festival, Abiodun pledged cash rewards of N2.5 million for every gold medallist from the state, N1.5 million for silver, and N1 million for bronze medallists.

Ogun State currently holds third place on the medals table with 48 gold, 38 silver, and 47 bronze medals.