By Amaechi Agbo

The ministry of youth and sports development has issued query to former president of Para-Powerlifting Federation of Nigeria, PPFN, Queen Uboh-Idris over her embarrassing and disrespectful actions to the country before and during the just concluded 2020 Para Powerlifting World Cup held in Abuja, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

In an eight-point query, the ministry demanded explanations from the ex-president on actions she took that negatively portrayed the image of the country in the global community.

Some of the actions the former president alleged to have been taken were how she singlehandedly obtained the hosting right of the world Cup without the knowledge of the ministry, why she disregarded the reconciliatory moves made by the honourable minister between her and the board; why she withheld information from the ministry and the PPFN board, her refusal to grant accreditation to team Nigeria athletes, among others.

The query, a copy of which our correspondent obtained reads:

– The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has condemned in strong terms the action of suspended President of the Para-Power Lifting Federation Mrs Queen Uboh-Idris for embarrassing the country, even as she has been directed to explain the damaging actions she took against  the interest of Team Nigeria at the just concluded Para Weight Lifting World Cup held in Abuja.

The Ministry said that Queen consistently violated the Code of Governance which regulates the administrative and technical operations of the Boards of National Sports Federations (NSFs) and the National Paralympic Powerlifting Federations (NPSFs) including but not limited to the following:

1.       Queen Uboh Idris sought and obtained single handedly (without recourse to neither Nigeria Para Powerlifting Board nor the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development), the hosting rights of the Abuja 2020 Para Powerlifting World Cup.

2.       She blatantly refused to respect the reconciliatory moves brokered by the Honourable Minister with the rest of the members of the NPP board on the one hand and with other inter-governmental agencies which offered their services towards the successful hosting of the World Cup in Abuja, on the other hand.

3.       Queen Uboh Idris was invited to several planning meetings by the Ministry and the board, but refused to show up.

4.       Queen Uboh Idris appointed a consultant and set up 23 number committees without the involvement nor knowledge of the NPP board nor the Ministry in violation of the rules of procedure and codes of governance:

5.       Queen deliberately withheld information from the NPP Board and the Ministry on the number of participating countries, registration and entries until the start of the tournament.

6.       Queen did not only ignore the directive of the Ministry to send back Para Powerlifters who did not qualify in the selection trials of Team Nigeria, preparatory to the commencement of the World Cup, but also went further to register these said Powerlifters online in the World Cup, as she alone had access to the IPC Sports Data Management System (SDMS) website; knowing fully well that this ought to be the responsibility of the Secretary General of the Federation.

7.       Queen embarrassed the athletes before the international community by refusing to grant accreditation to team Nigeria (the host country) and arrogating to yourself the powers of the Ministry in defiance to the Ministry’s directive and by so doing stalled for several hours the official kick off of the World Cup.

8.       Queen fielded athletes not recognised nor approved by either the Ministry nor the NPP Board in the World Cup in violation of the rules of procedure, despite repeated calls not to do so.

The Ministry affirmed that her actions disrespected the country and must be corrected in order not to send the wrong signals to the International sporting Community.

 The Ministry is aware that the board of Para Powerlifting have taken steps to address these infractions and the Ministry is monitoring for outcomes.