[November 19, 2009] Nigeria Olympic Committee disqualifies sports minister Tweet LAGOS, Nov 19, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has disqualified the country's minister of sports, Sani Ndanusa, from contesting the nation's Olympic Committee presidential election. Ndanusa has been locked in a bitter battle with the incumbent NOC President Habu Gumel who is seeking a comeback. Tony Nezianya, spokesman for the NOC, told sportswriters in Lagos on Wednesday that Ndanusa, who is the President of Nigeria Tennis Federation,failed to meet the conditions stipulated in Article 26: 1:2 of the NOC Constitution. "For the post of the (NOC) President, the candidate must have served in an executive position or at the level of a commissioner of an international federation, continental federation or the CGF for a period of at least four years," he said. According to Nezianya said the NOC found out that Ndanusa was elected as the first Vice-President of Confederation of African Tennis only on June 20,2007 in Tunisia and that he had not served for four years as the constitution required. "It also discovered that the minister was elected as the president of the Nigeria Lawn Tennis Federation (Nigeria Tennis Federation) when he was not present at the venue of the election," he said. "The NOC thus considered his election into the board of NLTF (NTF) as irregular and inconsistent," he added. "As a result of the irregularity in the NLTF (NTF) election, the NOC has suspended the tennis body from the NOC activities with immediate effect," the spokesman said. Nezianya said the suspension of the NTF would not be lifted until fresh elections, to be supervised by the NOC and the National Sports Commission was carried out at the NTF. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]