NEARLY two years ago, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, suspended two student-athletes indefinitely for boycotting an international taekwondo contest.

While the students are still on suspension, the management has now invited their coach, Okechi Onwuka, “to answer questions on the alleged act of insubordination and incitement of two students’ athletics [sic] to boycott World University Games in Taipei”.

The taekwondo athletes had decided against participating in the competition, held in August 2017, after their coach was told at the eleventh hour that he could not accompany them. Instead, the university sponsored the chairman of the sports committee, Chukwuemeka Chukwurah, and sports director, Cliff Nnadozie.

The students, Ekwe Nelson Chibunna, a final-year student of Engineering, and Jideofor Ikejehovah, a 400-level student of Environmental Management, had explained in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor prior to the competition that they were not comfortable with the new arrangement and could not go ahead and partake because of the heightened risks of going to a major competition without their coach.

The University Senate, however, suspended them indefinitely in April 2018 despite not inviting them to a hearing. It described their action as “an embarrassment to the university and the nation” and referred the case to the Students’ Disciplinary Committee (SDC).

Two years on, the students have neither been reinstated nor has the SDC disclosed its findings.

Coach invited for questioning
The student’s coach, Onwuka, was invited by the Staff Disciplinary Committee to a sitting scheduled for Monday, January 27, according to a letter obtained by The ICIR. The invitation was over allegations that he instigated the student-athletes to boycott the World University Games event.

Onwuka told The ICIR he was too ill at the time to attend the sitting, but Ikejehovah did and insisted they did not receive pressure to boycott the competition.

“He told them nobody incited him, that they told them even in writing that they could not go without their coach,” Onwuka said.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/two-years-after-suspending-student-athletes-michael-okpara-varsity-hounds-their-coach/