The State Minister for Sports, Hamson Obua has said that Ugandan weightlifter; Julius Ssekitoleko must face disciplinary action for escaping from the team’s camp during the Olympics games in Tokyo.
“Your excellency I want to report to you one of our athletes who behaved in an uncultured, unpatriotic, unnationalistic manner when he escaped from the training camp where Japanese government offered us two cities to qualify,” Obua said.
He was on Wednesday speaking as a function to receive the team that represented the country during the 2020 Olympics games.
Ssekitoleko Vanished from the Olympic village facilities in Izumisano City, Japan where the Ugandan Olympic team had pitched camp in preparation of the World Olympic Games before he was got a few days later and later returned home.
Speaking on Wednesday, the sports minister said the weightlifter’s actions put the country’s name in disrepute.
“This action brought disrepute to our country. We have a code of act signed by all players. We are to invoke it for him to be subjected to disciplinary processes. We also want to see whether his action didn’t amount to a breach of protocols for the pre-training camp in japan,”Obua said.
“We need discipline to be restored to sports sector but we need discipline if our country is to prosper. Allow me to proceed with disciplinary action against the athlete.”
Boasting of being a disciplinarian, Obua said whereas since the 90s Ugandan athletes have been disappearing during international tournaments but noted something has to change this time round.
“We have to discipline him for bringing the Ugandan name into disrepute.”
On return home, Ssekitolek was detained at Jinja road Police station for several days before he was released on police bond.
