In what appears like another grammatical blunder, the Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, yesterday told the House of Representatives Committee on Sports that funds “spended” by the ministry for the 2016 Olympics were properly ”spended”.
Captain of Dream Team VI, Mikel John Obi had bemoaned the plights of the Nigeria’s U-23 team ahead of the 2016 Olympics, saying: “It wasn’t a great experience in the build-up in Atlanta (training camp). There was no food for the guys, no bus to go to training, no pitch to train on.”
But appearing before the House Committee on Friday to defend allocations to the sports ministry, Dalung said, “Before we left for Rio, we wrote and requested for the release of monies appropriated for in the budget and it has not been released for the federations.
“Four hundred and fifty million naira was appropriated for Olympics, then we spent far beyond that, so… monies that were given to the federation could not have been monies meant for Olympics.”
A member of the committee, Danburam Nuhu observed that the ministry ought not to have spent beyond the funds approved by the National Assembly.
According to him, “It’s a serious matter Mr Chairman, because he’s spending outside the confines of the approval given by the national assembly.”
But in his response, Dalung said, “The funds spended were properly spended because we got them from intervention funds.
“We got these funds from intervention funds from Mr. president.”
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