by Benjamin Babine, Abuja
Former president of the Nigerian Para-Powerlifting Federation, Queen Uboh-Idris, has hinged her resignation from the federation on the bullying melted on her by some staff of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development before and during the preparation for the Para-powerlifting World Cup.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the former president revealed that friends and family members advised her to resign due to the health hazards the verbal bullying and physical mishandling, had done to her.
“I was psychologically and emotionally traumatized by the actions of the Minister, Permanent secretary and some members of the board.
“I have been bullied and intimidated by the aforementioned people. I have also been verbally assaulted by the director of the Federation of Elite Athletes Department, Tayo Oreweme,” she lamented.
Udoh-Idris further added that she was held hostage by the board members of the ministry, stressing: “Another reason I resigned was because I was held hostage for three hours 45 minutes by the board members during which one of the board members, Sunday Odion, physically mishandled me.”
“The level of bullying I received during the preparation for the tournament on a scale of one to 10 was 9.9 and I went into hypoglycemia shock twice because of it.
My family members, children extended family and friends request that I should resign because of all these,” she said.
Dismissing the allegations that she excluded the ministry in the day to day planning of the tournament she insisted that the ministry disassociated themselves from the tournament, adding that the country is not ready to host a world cup.
“I wrote to the ministry that the country had been given hosting rights but the ministry said that there was no budget for it. I even requested that the ministry writes to the presidency for funds but the ministry declined,” she said.
She further explained that she wrote to the presidency but the presidency wrote to her back that she should write through the ministry.
“From day one, the ministry of youths and sports had excluded themselves. They were not interested, they only want to be interested because they saw that we scaled out financially and now everything is looking nice, through mobilizing finance from my friends and family. Things are not done that way.”
While reacting to allegations of using her family as members of the tournament’s planning committee, the former president said: “About my family members; who do you run to when you have stress? You run to your family members.
“I know what it took me to force my family members to financially get involved. I happen to have a family member that is financially buoyant. It was this same family member who financially came to our rescue in the first tournament we hosted in Lagos.
“This my family member just got payed last month after over one year.
Meanwhile the funds had been made available by the ministry of finance since last year. When I saw that the Sports Ministry were not ready to bring the funds to buy equipments, I got my family member involved. Thank God I have a family that is buoyant enough.”
She dismissed the allegations about recieving tournament funds in her personal account, stressing that no international body will agree to pay money into a personal account.
About the news that she absconded with the tournament trophy, she laughed off the allegations, noting that the trophy was handed over to the Cheif host and Grand Patron at the tournament, First Lady, Dr Aisha Buhari who presented it to the winners. (sunnewsonline)
