NJF READS RIOT ACT TO JUDOKAS

“Travel for Competition Without Clearance, Get Sanctioned”

Henceforth, any judoka who did not get the clearance of the Nigeria Judo Federation, NJF before travelling out to attend competitions would be sanctioned.

President of the federation, Dr.Musa Oshodi handed out the warning on Tuesday in Lagos while addressing the media to herald the trials for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

He was responding to a question by a journalist who wanted to know why the federation won’t allow judokas travel out for competitions once they had their funds.

Dr. Oshodi said it would be chaotic and a complete abuse of established process to allow athletes travel out without clearance.

“It’s never done to allow an athlete who will be representing the country travel without clearance from the federation, he noted.

“Even if the athletes will sponsor themselves, they must get the federation’s clearance,” insisted the NJF Boss.

He said the clearance will not only be in the interest of the country but also in the interest of the athlete.

“When the athletes travel out, the clearance covers them as bona fide Nigerians on a legitimate mission of representing their country.

“With the clearance, if anything happens, the federation can activate diplomatic processes to assist them.

“As for the country, a clearance protects her image because it will make it impossible for criminal elements to take advantage of an international championship to carry out their nefarious operations.”

Dr. Oshodi while making reference to some judokas who travelled to Ghana recently without clearance warned that the behaviour won’t be tolerated any longer.

” Those who went to Ghana could be forgiven because for a long time the NJF was a pathetic organisation.

“But with the new board, the narrative has changed and henceforth any judoka that travels without clearance by the federation would be sanctioned”.

Earlier the President appealed to all judokas in the country to discountenance the rumours making the rounds that a team for the Commonwealth Games had been named by the federation.

According to him “The judokas who will represent Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games will emerge from the trials which will take place in Teslim Balogun Stadium from February 22nd to 25th.

“So judokas who want to represent Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games must participate in the trials,” he added. “No trials, no Commonwealth Games.”

The trials will attract over 300 judokas from the military, paramilitary, clubs, the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.