Playing tour: Fresh scandal in Ministry of Sports

 

* Commissioner squeezes about 150 athletes into his Calabar hotel

The last may not have been heard of the continuous war the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Monday Uko have declared on the lean resources of Akwa Ibom State.

Until things turn around and Governor Udom Emmanuel wake up from sleep to monitor the activities of the Ministry of Youth and Sports headed by Mr. Monday Uko, then the reckless spending and fraudulent acts currently ongoing will not stop in the Ministry in particular and the entire sporting system in general in the State.

Facts have emerged on the recent playing tour embarked by the State National League team, Akwa Starlets, the female team, Ibom Angels and Ibom Youth F.C through the initiative of Mr. Monday Uko. It could be recalled that last week Friday, the three teams went on a tour to Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
It was gathered that Mr. Monday Uko, a two-term Commissioner, had initiated the idea of sending the teams on a playing tour in a way of pushing the State Government monies into his personal account. The Commissioner is said to have imposed the initiative on the Technical Advisers of teams. The teams, our findings revealed were taken to lodge at the personal hotel of Mr. Monday Uko, Monty Suite Hotel in Calabar in the name of playing tour so that he would make monies throughout their stay.

THE INK learnt that the playing tour which was the brain child of the Commissioner he said to have convinced the teams that the tour was to prepare them ahead for their respective forthcoming league matches. It was gathered the playing tour which had attracted over 150 people, was nothing but a waste of the State resources. Speaking with our reporter on Tuesday, one of the top officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports expressed worried over the way Mr. Monday Uko is running the affairs of the Ministry.

He noted that since Monday Uko was appointed into the Ministry, things have not been smooth as it used to be, stressing that the Commissioner has been manning the Ministry as his own property. Hear him speak, “My brother, Monday Uko is just behaving as if he is the owner of the Ministry. Can you imagine him (referring to Monday Uko) taking all the teams and over 150 with people with Annang taking 90% people that participated to lodge at his personal hotel? Why didn’t he choose another State for the playing tour? Or allow the teams to prepare themselves here in the State, not to talk of him choosing another hotel for the camping, why must it be his Monty Suite? He queried.

Speaking with one of the Technical crew members who was not part of the playing to Calabar, he lamented that the said tour, Monday Uko carefully selected most people from the Annang Nation. He maintained that the Commissioner refused to carry every member of the Technical crew of the three teams to the much talked about playing tour. “The way Monday Uko is treating us is very bad. The so called playing tour is most dominated by Annang people who are members of the Technical crew of the three teams.”

A sports stakeholder who spoke with our reporter rejected Monday Uko’s leadership style in the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The stakeholder who pleaded his name not to be mentioned on print, said many stakeholders of sports in the State are not happy with Monday Uko whom he described as an autocratic Commissioner who has pocketed the Ministry. In his words, “While I may say this happenings in the sports community seems to be going unnoticed by the State Government, I will be quick to mention that I perceive that there is a conspiracy of silence from all critical sports stakeholders and top officials in the Ministry in the fight for the survival of sports industry in the State. I have not heard nor read the position of the so called stakeholders coming out to condemn Monday Uko’s attitude.”

On the way forward, one of the coaches in the State, said until the right thing is done in the Ministry of Youth and Sports by the Commissioner, sports and football in particular will never develop at the grassroot even when the Governor has released so much funds into the Ministry.   

        
It could also be recalled that this paper had last week reported about the Commissioner holding the Technical Adviser of Akwa United football club, Coach Maurice Cooreman to captive at his hotel, Monty Suite, Uyo along four lane by not allowing the coach to relocate to his official residence even after the State Government had released funds to the Commissioner for the renting as well as furnituring of Cooreman’s official apartment at Ikot Akpanabia. The Commissioner while briefing the press last week is said to have boasted that Coach Maurice Cooreman was on his way to his official apartment, but as at the end of the said media briefing, Cooreman was sighted at the hotel.

All efforts to reach Monday Uko for comment why he choose to lodge the teams in his hotel at Calabar and when the teams is coming back to the State proved abortive as he mobile lines was not going through as at press time.