Minister of Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung has blasted journalists who write unconfirmed, unverified and defamatory stories about him, urging them to desist from such acts.
Dalung, on a Facebook post titled 'Quote me Right' denied granting an interview to Brila FM where he was reported by some media houses to have said Athletes don't need much training to succeed at the Olympics and challenged sports writers to quote him right.
He said: "The last interview I granted was at the flag-off of the NCC Tennis league at the Abuja National Stadium. I was asked to compare the performance of Nigerian athletes at the just concluded Olympics and the ongoing Paralympics and I said that the performance of Nigerian athletes at the Paralympic Games has established the fact that apart from the right training there was also need for the determination to excel.' He wrote on his Official Facebook page
'I said that they all trained under the same conditions like the Olympic athletes. That, apart from not having adequate preparations, what then can we attribute to the performance of the Paralympic athletes who have done so well at the Games'
'That, if their argument was lack of good training, the Paralympic athletes went through the same. In fact they trained here in Nigeria and I asked what the secret was?'
This was what I said to the journalists who were at the stadium for the tennis event."
According to the Minister, defamatory stories were capable of bringing people to public ridicule.
Dalung, on a Facebook post titled 'Quote me Right' denied granting an interview to Brila FM where he was reported by some media houses to have said Athletes don't need much training to succeed at the Olympics and challenged sports writers to quote him right.
He said: "The last interview I granted was at the flag-off of the NCC Tennis league at the Abuja National Stadium. I was asked to compare the performance of Nigerian athletes at the just concluded Olympics and the ongoing Paralympics and I said that the performance of Nigerian athletes at the Paralympic Games has established the fact that apart from the right training there was also need for the determination to excel.' He wrote on his Official Facebook page
'I said that they all trained under the same conditions like the Olympic athletes. That, apart from not having adequate preparations, what then can we attribute to the performance of the Paralympic athletes who have done so well at the Games'
'That, if their argument was lack of good training, the Paralympic athletes went through the same. In fact they trained here in Nigeria and I asked what the secret was?'
This was what I said to the journalists who were at the stadium for the tennis event."
According to the Minister, defamatory stories were capable of bringing people to public ridicule.
