Fatimo Bello Brought Disgrace To Lagos State,Says John Peters

The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation,NTTF, has placed a three year ban on Lagos State fast developing Table tennis player, Fatimo Bello, for contradicting the rules and regulations on the eligibility of an athlete for the National Sports Festival.

"The Lagos State Table Tennis Assocaition,LSTTA, recommended to the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, NTTF, a five year ban on Fatimo Bello because if we apply that, it would mean that the ban would apply only to tournaments in Lagos State."

A witten recommendation was forwarded to the NTTF on Staurday for ratification and the NTTF has approved a 3 year ban on her.So what that mean is that for the next 3 year, Fatimo Bello is not going to take part in any organised table tennis event"

Fatomi Bello, who have won series of table tennis competitions in the last couple of months in Lagos State, was banned after the aggrieved and disgraced Lagos State Table Tennis Association,LSTTA, wrote a recommendation letter to the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation to ban Fatimo Bello for a period of five years for the disgrace she brought to the LSTTA.

"Its very unfortunate because this is very young promising girl.In the last 15 months, Fatimo Bello has won all the tournaments organised in Lagos State."She has won a lot of cash awards.So if she did to  herself and she did not think of the implication, am afraid the implication are very serious."It also mean s that she has to do something else within 3 year."

The protest over Fatimo Bello was initiated by the Delta State Table Tennis Head Coach, Eric Ofuya, who was furious to see Bello competing for Lagos State in a game against Delta State in the Women's Team event at the National Stadium, indoor sports hall.

According to Efuya, Fatimo Bello, has been on the pay roll of the Delta State Sports Commission for two years and her decision to play for Lagos State negate the rules and regulations guiding the National Sports Festival, hence the reason a formal protest letter was forwarded to the Secretary General of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Segun Oguntade for clarification.

The technical adviser of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association, LSTTA,John Peters, said Bello's dastardly act had deprived the association of wining any medal in the Women's Team event because she had played in some matches where the Lagos State team are through to the final of the Women's Team event, stressing that her qualification meant that she would forfeit all the matches she had won.


"Her disqualification meant that she would have to forfeit all matches won to her opponents.As a result, when Lagos was disqualified, since we beat Abia State in the Quarter final and Delta State in the semi final"

"The situation was that Abia State was promoted to play in the semi final."So they met Delta State in the semi final and of course Delta State won a Gold medal in the Women's Team event" he explained.


Peters, said the Association's promise of wining the seven Gold medals at stake in the Table Tennis event had been shattered based on the development, adding that the association would not have gone ahead to register Fatimo Bello for the EKO 2012 Games if they are aware that she has been collecting money from Delta State and the other four ping pongers would have still go ahead to win the Gold medal in the team event in the table tennis team event.

"Another implication is that our promise to the Honourable Commissioner, Wahid Enitan Oshodi, that we are to win all the 7 Gold medals at stake in table tennis to him can no longer be fulfilled because of th development"And so it is very demoralizing to other four players in the team because if we had any sign that Fatimo Bello was collecting money and therefore stood the risk of being disqualified, we would not still have featured her at all and the other four girls would still have won"

Peters, said the association was embarrassed by Fatomi Bello's confession before the panel that she had been on the pay roll of Delta State since April, 2011 till September 2012,adding that the Delta State Table Tennis Association showed document where Fatimo Bello's letter of employment, Acceptance letter.

"To our embarrassment, she confessed before the panel that she had been collecting salary from Delta State"Delta State showed documents to the panel to indicate that she wrote a letter for employment and she was offered employment.She started receiving salary from April 2011 till September, 2012" he stated.