Rio Olympics: FG Denies Sending Athletes Letter asking them to buy their tickets

Over the weekend, news broke that the Federal Government sent mails to the Nigerian athletes which will be representing the country at the upcoming Rio Olympics in Brazil asking them to fund their own tickets and accommodation. In the mail sent, it was stated that there was inadequate funds to cater for all of them at the moment, and that any expenses they made will be reimbursed to them when money is available. That mail sparked a lot of frenzy on the internet as people were disappointed at such unprofessional act by the Federal Government.

However, the Federal government, in response to news of Nigerian athletes crowdfunding to travel to the Rio Olympics have said that no member of Team Nigeria will have to pay their way to Brazil.

This was made known in a series of Tweets on the Presidency Office Digital Engagement (PODE)‘s Twitter handle.

Athletes had resorted to crowdfunding after they received a mail from the Ministry of Sports stating that they should pay for their tickets, adding that they will get a refund later.

The Ministry of Sports have denied sending the mail to the athletes.

“We did not write any mail asking athletes to pay their way to Rio. As the overseers of sports in the country, it is our duty to take care of all our athletes.

The letter did not come from us and we will investigate the writer of that letter. It does not represent our stand concerning the movement of athletes to Rio and the writer or anybody asking athletes to buy their tickets to Rio will be investigated. We ask Nigerians and athletes in particular to disregard the mail,” Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung said in a statement on Facebook.

Dalung in the statement, regretted the embarrassment caused by the letter and asked athletes to remain focused on their build-­up to the Rio games.