Nigerian basketball players on Tuesday besieged the office of Minister of Youth and Sports development Chief Sunday Dare located inside Moshood Abiola National stadium Abuja to request for audience of the crises plaguing the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).
The players drawn from 16 domestic clubs including Kano Pillars, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC defenders), Nigeria customs, Kwara Falcons, Coal City, among others at the end of their meeting on Tuesday wondered why the crisis would be allowed to linger without resolution.
They however, recalled how the Nigerian basketball went on for years without domestic league competition, but for the ongoing Mark D Ball tournament which is already winding down.
The leader of the entire players and players’ representatives on the NBBF board, Stanley Gumut, who spoke on behalf of others after their meeting in front of Minister’s office said, “We came to ask to know what is going on with our basketball. We want to know the way forward, when this crisis is going to end so that the Nigerian basketball player will know his fate.
“We came to meet with the Minister, unfortunately, we heard he has left.”
On the next plans by the players, Gumut said, “We are going to drop a letter and ask to see the Minister. We have written lots of letters to the ministry, but we are yet to get response.
“To be fair to the Minister, we have not written a letter asking for face to face audience with him. However, we are demanding for a resolution to the NBBF crisis.”
The resonated crisis in NBBF reared up towards the later part of 2021, after four years of relative peace.
In January 2022, two factional elections held in Benin and Abuja, produced two parallel boards laying claim to the leadership of NBBF till date.
