SLAA impasse amicably resolves
September 20, 2017 By Sahr Morris Jnr
All smiles… a united SLAA body
After 21 months of wrangling, the standoff within the Sierra Leone Athletics Association (SLAA) has on Tuesday September 19 finally resolved in a closed door meeting hosted at the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone (NOC-SLE) secretariat.
Since December 15th, 2015 elective assembly, the SLAA was rocked with double administration tussle as the re-elected Adbul Karim Sesay was recognized by the international federation(IAAF), while the Martin Bangura’s faction was recognized by the country’s sports ministry.
However, in an over 3 hours meeting mediated by the country’s international athlete ambassador, Leslie Koroma, both parties agreed to work as a single body, while the eight executive position was shared amongst the factions.
Already, the Martin Bangura faction was presented with Vice President, Assistant Secretary, Public Relation Officer (PRO) and Organizing Secretary, while Abdul Karim Sesay’s team maintains the presidency, Secretary General and other positions.
In a brief reaction, Karim Sesay said he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and glad that they are now a united force to push forward the activities of the Association.
“The dispute is over.We must now work towards the development of the association and the athletes,” Sesay said.
The now united body will meet with the Sports Minister and members of Sports council to update them on the development.
Since December 2015, the IAAF has always refuted talks of re-conducting elections for the Sierra Leone Athletic Association (SLAA) and reaffirmed their certification of the Abdul Karim Sesay led administration.