Olympics: flight tickets are free for athletes– Minister

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, on Saturday said nobody has directed foreign-based athletes taking part in this year Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to buy flight tickets.

Dalung, made the clarification in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Nneka Anibeze, in Lagos.

The statement said the clarification was necessary following the discovery of a letter, said to have originated from the ministry, asking athletes to buy their tickets to the Olympics.

Dalung, according to the statement, made it clear that the Director of High Performance in the ministry, Angie Taylor, has the responsibility of arranging for the athletes’ flight to the Games.

“We did not write any mail asking athletes to pay their way to Rio,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the minister as saying in the statement.

“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 the letter.

“It does not represent our position on 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 the athletes in particular to disregard the mail.”