Nigerian athletes disqualified from Olympics due to inadequate drug testing

10 out of Nigeria’s 23 track and field athletes have been forced to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympic Games because they did not meet the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules. In other words, the athletes did not receive the minimum amount of out-of-competition testing leading up to the Games in order to compete.

According to Nigerian news outlet, channelstv.com, the athletes are blaming their disqualification on negligence by their country’s sport administrators, and have taken to the streets in Tokyo to protest the decision to disqualify them from competition. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has taken responsibility for the lapses, but it will not be enough to have the affected athletes reinstated.

The disqualified athletes are now protesting with signs that read “why should we suffer because of someone else’s negligence?” and “all we wanted to do was compete.” Eight athletes from other countries were also disqualified for the same reason. To clarify, none of the athletes involved were taken out of competition because of doping violations or missed tests, but rather because their country’s governing body responsible for testing athletes failed to test them enough times before the Games.

Prior to the Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the independent body created by World Athletics to manages all integrity issues, identified Nigeria’s federation as “Category A” after a continued period of weak domestic testing levels. Other category A countries include Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine. One Nigerian athlete, sprinter and long jumper Blessing Okagbare, has been disqualified for failing a drug test on Saturday. 

By Brittany Hambleton 

Canadian Running

Video - Boko Haram exploiting social vulnerabilities

For over a decade, Boko Haram has launched attacks in the Sahel region. The group launched its first series of attacks in Nigeria's Borno state. A report by the Tony Blair Institute says Boko Haram established power by exploiting social vulnerabilities. Chief among those is the low-level of education in Nigeria's northeast. UNESCO puts the literacy rate for Borno state at 14 point 5 percent. The report urges authorities to prioritise soft-power policy programmes to combat the threat posed by Boko Haram.

Nigerian Police Ordered to Free 5 Anti-Buhari Activists

 A Nigerian court has ordered the secret police to release five suspects detained for wearing T-shirts criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari, their lawyer said Tuesday.

The men were arrested early this month by the Department of State Service (DSS) during a church service led by a well-known evangelical pastor in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

They had been wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Buhari Must Go!" inside the church when they were arrested and detained.

The church was accused of aiding the arrests, but it denied the allegation.

On Monday, the federal high court Abuja ordered the DSS to release the suspects, lawyer Allen Sowore told AFP.

"The judge ordered their release forthwith without any condition. But we have not got a certified true copy of that order," he said.

He said his clients were yet to be freed.

"Unfortunately, the judge has not signed the order. So, we just came here [to the DSS office] thinking that they will act on the order of the court, but they have not acted."

Buhari, a former army commander, has come under fire after his government recently banned Twitter, a move Western allies and critics warned undermined freedom of expression.

Officials announced the ban after Twitter removed a remark from Buhari's personal account for violating its policies.

The Nigerian leader is also under pressure to tackle the country's insecurity.

The security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, a surge in mass kidnappings by criminal gangs in central and northwestern states, and separatist tension in parts of the south.

VOA

Video - Kidnappers in Nigeria release 28 schoolchildren

Emotional scenes in Nigeria’s Kaduna state as 28 schoolchildren were reunited with their parents after being abducted by armed men. Other families were left in tears, with 87 students still missing.

Nigeria school kidnappers abduct man delivering ransom

Kidnappers in Nigeria have seized a man who was sent to deliver a ransom payment to secure the release of dozens of abducted school children.

The elderly man was sent by the children's parents after they managed to raise 30m naira ($73,000; £53,000) by selling land and other possessions.

But they have been left feeling hopeless following his kidnapping.

The north of the country is in the midst of a wave of school abductions carried out by criminals for profit.

Ransoms are frequently paid, but this is a rare case where the person carrying the cash has been taken.

The kidnappers called up the school's headteacher to say that the money delivered was not the agreed sum.

The 136 students were taken from an Islamic school in Tegina, Niger state, in late May.

Gunmen riding on motorcycles stormed the town and opened fire indiscriminately killing one person and injuring another.

As people fled, the attackers went to the school and seized the children.

The parents and school administrators negotiated with the criminals and agreed to pay the ransom. They sold part of the school's land as well as other possessions.

Headteacher Malam Abubakar Alhassan told the BBC that six people were sent with the correct amount to meet the kidnappers near the forest where the children were being held.

When they arrived, the gunmen demanded that one of the group, an elderly man, follow them into the forest so that the cash could be counted.

But they later called to say the money was not sufficient.

"Parents are now resigned to fate. They say they can't raise any more money. They are now relying on God," Mr Alhassan told the BBC.

More than 1,000 students have been abducted from schools across northern Nigeria since December last year.

Hundreds of them are still in captivity, but 28 of the 121 children taken from the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state earlier this month were freed on Saturday night.

The authorities are being severely criticised for their failure to tackle the country's widespread insecurity including the deepening kidnapping crisis.

By Ishaq Khalid

BBC

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