Ondo SWAN election ends in chaos

The election of the Ondo State chapter of the
Sport Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Ondo State Chapter was on Thursday disrupted, following attempts by the outgoing Chairman of the association, Mr. Wahab Bankole to extend his tenure through the backdoor as the Caretaker Committee Chairman.

The tenure of the present executive of the association expired in May, 2022 while an election to usher new leadership was slated for October 27, 2022 but the process was halted.

The Zonal Vice President of the association, Seun Ajayi-Obe, who represented the national body of SWAN announce the suspension of the election, following a petition from one of the candidates, Michael Akintunde.

The whole congress however, unanimously agreed to dissolved the Bankole- led Executive and put in place a Caretaker Committee pending the time for the conduct of the election for the Ondo state SWAN.

However, there was uproar after the immediate past Chairman of the SWAN in the state, Bankole was nominated as the Chairman of the Interim Committee for the Sport writers in the state.

Members of the association revolted and the whole process was canceled while they maintained that a vacuum could not be left in the association as the state chapter of the association is currently without no executives or caretaker committee.

Some of the members who spoke to Nigerian Tribune called on the public to await further decision from the National Secretariat of the association on the composition of new caretaker committee to run the affairs of Ondo SWAN, while calling on the Wife of the Ondo State Governor, Mrs Betty Anyanwu- Akeredolu to disregard any letter of award from the association in the state.

All attempts to speak with the immediate past Chairman, Bankole proved abortive as all his phones were switched off and could not be reached to react to the development.