Bayelsa SWAN rejects China Acheru’s caretaker committee

Some aggrieved members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Bayelsa State chapter, on Tuesday distance themselves from China Acheru’s three-man caretaker committee.

SWAN National Ex Officio and National Officer, Mr China Acheru, who was to supervise the botched election, had last week set up a three-man committee to organize election into the State Executive Committee of Bayelsa SWAN.

He noted that the three-man caretaker committee was constituted to pilot the affairs of the state’s chapter of SWAN for the next three months because not all the candidates for the election met the requirements in the SWAN status, and as a result, the poll will not hold.

But some members of the body, after the end of a crucial meeting on Monday at the Ernest Okoli Media Complex, Yenagoa, described the caretaker committee as illegal.

In a communiqué signed by the drafting committee chairperson, Mrs Doris Francis Eniekezimene and Secretary, Hananeel Jackson, the body distances itself from the China Acheru interim caretaker committee.

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They described the caretaker committee headed by Mr Loveday Herbert as abnormal.

According to the communiqué, the committee is illegal and at variance with the interest of members, enabling the selfish desires of a few and hell-bent on destroying the Association, hence their penchant to become godfathers in SWAN Bayelsa.

The aggrieved Bayelsa SWAN members called on the national body to immediately conduct a credible election in the state.

SWAN Bayelsa further noted that the appointment of Mr Loveday Herbert is a total disappointment as he has served as chairman unilaterally for twelve years without conducting elections, in a chapter that boasts of capable hands who are tech-savvy.

The union further urged the Bayelsa State Government, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Bayelsa State Football Association, Bayelsa State Sports Council, Bayelsa United, Bayelsa Queens and key stakeholders in the state not to have anything to do with the interim SWAN caretaker committee until a substantive executive is elected.

The association equally congratulated Commissioner-Designate and former Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Chief Daniel Igali, for his nomination and wished him well in his new assignment.

SWAN Bayelsa also commended Governor Douye Diri for his unparalleled development of sports in the state in the last four years, describing milestones recorded in the sports sector as unprecedented.

The group also observed a minute of silence for departed members of the association who passed on last year and prayed to God to give their families the fortitude to bear the irreplaceable loss.