Athletes with disabilities yesterday caused a major disruption to traffic flow in Lagos as they protested their exclusion from the 2022 National Sports Festival.
The festival is billed for Asaba, Delta State from November 28 and December 10 and the para-athletes are unhappy that they will not be taking part in the event.
Some of the para-athletes on crutches and in wheelchairs blocked one of the major highways in Lagos, Funsho Williams Avenue, which is around the National Stadium and the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
They refused to leave the road in front of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, blocking the route to Costain, which leads on to the commercial and corporate heartbeat of the state, Lagos Island.
There were minor skirmishes with policemen who tried to remove the athletes, but there were no injuries reported as the roads were eventually cleared.
The para-athletes had been involved in the sports festival in the past and they are especially aggrieved that they are left out this time while the sports ministry has invited athletes from neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Ghana and Republic of Benin for the first time.
In a letter to the sports ministry on Tuesday, the para-athletes had expressed their displeasure at the development and warned that they would stage a protest.
They had given the sports ministry 24 hours to reinstate para-sports like wheelchair tennis, deaf sports, para-swimming and wheelchair basketball or they would block major roads around the National Stadium, Surulere.
The athletes took action as they promised since there was apparently no response from the ministry, which led to the disruption of traffic yesterday.
