By Our Correspondent

The Director of Federations in the Ministry Of Youth and Sports Development, Tayo Oreweme, has debunked allegations of bullying by the former President of the Para Powerlifting Federation, Queen Uboh-Idris, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

Mrs Oreweme debunked the allegations while speaking on a live session on Channels Television on Friday.

“The Ministry of which I am a Director Supervises and monitors 38 Federations And has a parastatal called the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). For me as the Director of Federations, I superintend directly 38 Federations of which Power Paralifting is one of them.

“There are codes of governance that 38 of the Federations tied into when their elections were conducted, for the able, they conducted their election in 2017 and for the para they conducted theirs in 2018. There is a code of governance that stipulates each and every functions. As the monitor and supervisor, the elections were conducted and the elections tied into what would guide them to ensure best practices. As I said, Queen single handedly did alot of things, even with the caution that the Ministry gives her, she does not want to comply with the code of conducts.”

While speaking on whether the Ministry communicated to the athletes and coaches before the tournament was moved to Abuja, she said, “It is not true, we are not running a Banana republic, there is a president, vice president, board and a secretariat. So, when the board and the technical committee took the decision on the number of athletes to be in Abuja, communication was made through the secretary-general who communicated to the various states and the athletes concerned, letters were written on their forum and they started reporting to camp from the 19th even though it was supposed to be 20th.

“There were some that stayed in Abuja because there is this build up that has been between the aggrieved board
members that were talking about Queen running a show business of a sole administrator and there are some on the side of the 10 board members. So, these were the athletes that were pitching in Lagos. When the Ministry held the final meeting with the president and board members, they were moved from Lagos to join their counterparts in Abuja and they stayed in camp, a total of 158 persons under my watch and these were the people that stayed in camp for 15 days before the tournament from the 5th – 8th.”

Speaking on the allegations of bullying, she said, “I don’t understand what she means by the Ministry bullying her. If you are the monitor of someone and you ask the person to explain basic issues of planning, funding, logistics, bonding your board with you then, what is bullying here? For crying out loud, the Minister came in in August/September and he had a meeting with Queen before coming to Morocco and when we got back from Morocco the Ministry insisted the board meets for reconciliation in the Minister’s conference room with the Minister, Permanent Secretary and myself on the 29th Of November, 2019 to ensure a resolve on the fight that had been on with Queen since the election day.

“Queen has been doing her own show, she feels the office of the president is that of the commander in chief of republic of
para powerlifting and we told her she is just one amongst equal.

“Out of 13 of them in the board , Queen and Mrs. Olawale got their mandate directly from the Ministry, it’s only the both of them that did not go through election, all others except the secretary and treasurer who are staff of the Ministry went through zonal elections, NAWIS elections, NAFAD elections and all constituency elections before they became members of the board. There are only two seats the Ministry fills, that is someone to look for sponsors and philanthropists because para needs funding.

“Queen comes from the Ministry’s constituency and how can she say she is being bullied by her own constituency, there is no co-relation in such accusation. If someone is put in such position as Queen aren’t you supposed to be responsive to that office? Queen has been doing otherwise and she doesn’t want to be checked. When she is being asked what she used money she raised for or which account she puts it in, who is the authorizing signatory, she would say ‘excuse me’ and that’s the end. We had several meetings to address and ensure she is checked but Queen would always find an escape route and she would say no one can ask her questions from the 1st Edition and even this one.“