‘Sports Minister Dalung has apologised to me for calling me a human trafficker’ – Samson Siasia

Africa’s most decorated coach at the Olympics, Samson Siasia has revealed that he has ended the feud between himself and sports minister Barrister Solomon Dalung after the minister apologized to him.

According to Siasia, he was just angry and unhappy that the team and himself weren’t appreciated by the government despite they were the only team to win a medal at Rio Olympics 2016.

Siasia’s said in an interview with BBC World sports reporter Osasu Obayiuwana
“I was very surprised that he (Dalung) accused me of being a human trafficker. He has apologised to me for making that statement. The minister has made some mistakes and needs to be guided. But I have decided to let what he said go…”

“If I had known that I will be in this situation (being owed five months), I would never have taken up this job.

I have been relying on friends, in order to survive. There is no excuse for my being owed five months wage. My son asks me, “Dad, how can you be working and they don’t pay you?”

“I am disappointed by how I and my team have been treated, after being the only ones to bring a medal home for Nigeria. On getting back from Brazil, we were put up at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos for a night, after which everyone went their separate ways.”

”No official ceremony, not even a handshake from the President. It was the same thing I experienced after winning the Silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. I don’t know whether it is my fate to be always treated this way.”