By Kebba AF Touray
Members of the Gambia Deaf Sports Association have expressed their disappointment with the former Youth and Sports Minister, Hendry Gomez and called for the government and the authorities of the sports sector to intervene. They made this emphatic called yesterday at the medium’s main office in Churchills Town.
According to Lamin Ceesay, the President of the association the complaint came as a result of their predicament they encountered last year while going to Bamako for a continental championship dubbed Africa Day ,during the trip, he said they spend almost three days on the way and slept and cooked on the highway.
He said after his team had put up a spectacular performance in the competition, they were awarded as the most disciplined team and their team captain, Abdoulie Njie, who is currently playing in Ukraine, was awarded the best player of the championship.
He added that upon return from the tourney, they handed over their accolades to the former Youth and Sports Minister and expressed their challenges during the competition, who he added promised to finally hand over the said accolades to the President and will be refunded for the trip, which he disclosed to be at a tune of D300,000, and will be supported this year.
“This year we are supposed to take part in a similar tourney in Togo due next month, but our dreams are in darkness as we did not have the needed financial support from both National Youth Council and Youth and Sports Ministry,” he decried.
He continued “during our meeting with the current Sports Minister, Hadrammeh Sidibeh, he assured us that he look into the matter. Much to our surprise he [Hadrammeh] his predecessor did not leave any file in the office concerning their issue.”
He also stated that he [Lamin Ceesay] has been invited as the Vice President of the Confederation of Africa Deaf Sports Association to take part in the confederation’s General Meeting slated for 3rd -7th of August this year in South Africa with a female representative, but when he wrote to National Youth Council, they responded in the negative and the current Sports Minister promised him to report back to him today Monday 30th July 2018.
According to him his players across the country maintain that their case cannot be regarded as childish and are demanding that; the ex-sports Minister returns their accolades to them and fulfill his promises.
“We are seeking financial supports from both the Ministry of Youth and Sports, government and NGOs to help us facilitate our trip to Togo and my trip to South Africa for a continental meeting,” he concludes
Efforts to get the Ministry or Gomez to react to the story proved vain.
