Stalemate at Ondo SWAN election: Members reject attempt to impose former Chairman into Caretaker Committee

The Sport Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN),Ondo State Chapter was thrown into chaos on Thursday set for the election of the association as dissolved Chairman of the exco, Wahab Bankole planned to extend his tenure through the backdoor as the caretaker committee chairman.

 

It would be recalled that the tenure of the current executive had expired in May 2022 after election had been fixed for Oct. 27 only for the Zonal Vice President to announce that the election be placed on hold the ground of receiving a petition from one of the Chairmanship aspirant, Mr Michael Akintunde.

 

During a special congress today, members unanimously dissolved the former Exco led by Bankole and called for the composition of a caretaker committee to conduct fresh election.

 

The executives of the association was dissolved by the Zonal Vice President,Ajayi Obe, and as election would not hold due to the petition,which was not made available to members of the congress and was time to select the caretaker committee.

 

Tempers however flared when the immediate past chairman Bankole was renominated to become the chairman of the interim committee by the petitioner, which members immediately revolted against, demanded another nomination but the refusal of the Vice President to reject the nomination of Bankole led to chaos and they stormed out of the venue (Akure township stadium) to avoid bloody clash.

 

This has left vacuum in the state chapter of the association and currently has no executives or caretaker committee in place to steer the affairs of the association.

 

Some of the members who spoke called on the public to await further decision from the national Secretariat of the association on the composition of new caretaker committee to run affairs of Ondo SWAN, urging the Wife of the Ondo State Governor, Mrs Betty Akeredolu to disregard letter of award sent to her office.