Nine officials of the West Coast Regional Sports Committee, including executive members, yesterday convened a press briefing in Brikama to distance themselves from the decision to suspend BYSA, “taken by their own chairman”.
Led by second vice president Alasan Jarjue, all officials claimed they had not been consulted by their chairman on the BYSA affairs before he went ahead to unilaterally suspend BYSA.
“For me, I am just setting eyes on the National Sports Council letter or any other correspondence on the matter. Our chairman never summoned a meeting to discuss anything prior to his decision to suspend BYSA,” Mr Jarjue said.
Another official, Ousman Marreh, chairman of the Kombo Central District, in whose district BYSA falls, said he felt disappointed that his district which is the first authority over BYSA affairs was not even consulted or contacted before the decision to suspend BYSA was taken.
“Even the National Sports Council did not follow its own protocol to refer matters to the district in which BYSA is before dealing with the Regional Committee,” he said.
Lamin Jarjue of Bondali District also said his body was never consulted on the matter even though as a district they are members of the Regional Committee.
All the officials unanimously stated that the decision to suspend BYSA was not binding and they would not recognise the Normalization Committee appointed by their chairman since it was not a collective decision of the entire executive of the West Coast Regional Sports Committee.
They, however, said that since they were now in the picture they would get down to work as a committee to investigate the matter as requested by the NSC.
This development came on the heels of another press conference convened by team representatives at which they too vowed they would stop participating in national competitions if the decision to suspend BYSA was not revoked.
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