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| L-R: Rt. Hon. Orok Duke and Gov Liyel Imoke |
18 May 2018
The Executive Chair of the Cross River State Sports Commission, Otuekong Orok Duke has replied social commentator Eugene Upah in respect of latter’s recent opinion on the fate of Sports Commission under the former Gov Liyel Imoke.
Duke has advanced 6 points (A to F) to the effect of diffusing the alleged ignorance Upah’s article is capable of evoking. Excerpts:
RE: LIYEL IMOKE WAS RIGHT SCRAPPING THE BOARD ON SPORTS – BY EUGENE UPAH: A MISNOMER
I write to educate the general public on the ignorance the above mentioned article by Mr Eugene Upah, may engender. Mr Upah, presaged his article with the following misnomer postulations, viz:
1) That former Governor Liyel Imoke had scrapped the Sports Commission. The title of his article reads, ” Liyel Imoke was right scrapping the Board on Sports”, but in the body of the write-up, I found this contradiction; ”Senator Imoke knew (fully) the need to stand down the sports commission board to stop unnecessary infighting”.
2) That the engagement of Mr Bruce(from Edo State, as a Consultant, above Official control or limitation for 6 sports at the cost of 1.4 million US Dollar per year for 7 years) of Kimasports, was right.
3) That Sports Administration is shifting away from the Commission Model (which Gov. Donald Duke adopted in 2001 and the CRHA, backed it up with a Law).
4) That, ”Even President Muhammadu Buhari upon receiving expert counsel scrapped the board of the National Sports Commission in 2015 headed by Alhassan Yakmut and delegated operations directly to the federal MOYSD instead.”
5) That, ” His Excellency, Governor Ben Ayade may not have known the implications of terminating the services of a Consultant in that regard. Setting up a board instead has caused the state more harm than it has favored sports as this is evident in the results since the CSDP was discontinued in 2015.”
HERE ARE THE IMMUTABLE FACTS AND CORRECTIONS – ”ONE CANNOT DISSOLVE A PREGNANCY BY COUGHING”:
A) There is, (as there was then), an extant Cross River State Law, establishing the Cross River State Sports Commission (CRS Law n0 1 of 2001). The mandate of the CRS Sports Commission, includes;
Organising ”all sports and sporting activities in CRS, including Govt Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies.
Managing all Govt owned Sports Facilities
And managing all monies allocated for sports in CRS.
So, Mr Upan, having not repealed the extant CRS Sports Commission Law 1 of 2001 and unilaterally, standing down but, suo motu, paying out Millions of US Dollars to an unknown entity in all the extant laws and rules of sports administration in CRS, was wrong, ab initio. Let us call a spade, a spade and not a shovel.
B) That the engagement of Mr Bruce of Kimasports Ltd, to organise 6 out of the 43 sports, at the cost of USD 1,400,000 (One million,four hundred thousand US dollars) helped Cross River State? Please kindly show us where the discovered athletes are; a Database of achievements and what he did with the other 37 sports.
Let me put on record that Mr Bruce, sold 14 young Basketball players from CRS to US colleges and pocketed the proceeds, as an Agent. He also, negotiated and sold 8 female athletes to Bahrain (They are all Bahranian citizens now). In his uncontrollable greed,avarice and determination to continue fleecing Cross River State, Kimasports sued Governor Ayade and CRSG to claim the sum of 10 billion US dollars in 2016 and lost. He has since filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal, Calabar Division. I am standing in for CRSG and will try my best to prevent him from further carting away our scarce and limited financial resources.
” The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. – John 10:10-12.
C) The modern way of running sports, is to involve more three administrators for the assignment of administering 40-60 sports (including football). ”More heads are better than one” is the Modern Trend, which Gov Donald Duke, deciphered as early as 2000 AD. (Lagos state that successfully hosted the 2012 National Sports Festival, had since dissolved into a Commission. Delta and Edo states have adopted Commissions…).
So Mr Eugene Upah is wrong to say that the leading states in sports don’t have Commissions.
D) Alhassan Yakmut, was the Director General of The National Sports Commission by the time President Buhari assumed office, but it was discovered that the National Assembly had held on to the National Sports Commission Bill for several years without passing it into Law, thereby rendering the existence of the National Sports Commission, without an enabling Law, an illegality. So, President Buhari simply refused to commit an illegal act.
E) Mr Upah, kindly note that President Buhari, did not want to commit an illegality, but allotting funds to a body that was not established by Law (unlike what was done with Mr Bruce, where millions of US dollars went down the drain) and had re-presented a bill for the establishment of The National Sports Commission and it is presently in the public space. The Commission Model is the in-thing, surely. You are wrong there, again.
F) Stating that Senator Professor) Ben Ayade, Governor, Cross River State, was wrong in discontinuing the illegality that he inherited, is quite condescending. How can a Lawyer, who activates an extant law that was not repealed, be judged to have committed a wrong? Mr Upah, the gang up of contractors and abandonment of Contracts for the provision of Sports Infrastructure, came about, because the Sports Commission was stood down, thereby, not having a competent body to supervise and properly monitor those usurpers. By my summation, over 8 billion Naira was lost during the period that the CRS Sports Commission was stood down – Fact.
(Go to U. J. Esuene Stadium and CRUTECH and see the mess that was left behind).
In summary, Governor Ayade, has once again, proven to be a visionary, in line with the trajectory that Sports is blazing in the whole world. Those who have missed the collective plundering of our Sports heritage due to a mess of pottage, should continue lobbying in vain for a return to our sordid (immediate) past. This is also a testimonial, that ”Ayade is working”. What we have in sports now is simply a Restoration.
”I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” – Joel 2:25.
I have unequivocally enlisted as a former athlete and a long time sports administrator in this project. Let us restore Spors in Cross River State, please.
”The future is bright, the gypsy said so, last night”.
Rt Hon (Chief) Orok Otu Duke
Chairman,
Cross River State Sports Commission.
BLOGGERTOTIAL
Read Upah’s original article that inspired Duke’s response: http://www.negroidhaven.org/2018/05/re-how-liyel-imoke-set-me-up-against.html?m=1
