By Allieu Bockarie
232news
As it was clear even before the election that the outgoing President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) Dr. Patrick Coker will not be going for the presidential position again.
In this case, the 28 delegates of the NOCSL voted in new executive body to run the affairs of the committee for the next four years. The 28 delegates were the presidents, Chairmen and Secretary Generals of the various Olympic sports and commissions in Sierra Leone.
Apart from the President’s position, the delegates also on Saturday voted for the positions of Vice president, Treasurer and two Ex-officio members. In all three candidates opted to go for the president position after Shamsu Mustapha stood down. The three candidates were Prince Sualley, (president of the Sierra Leone Wrestling Association), Kelvin Ezekiel Keilie (President of Lawn Tennis) and Mohamed Turay president of Swimming and Water Polo Association.
Among them Prince has once contested for the presidency position and lost to Dr. Coker. He took over as the Treasurer of the NOCSL in 2016 onto date. Kelvin is a returnee to the Sierra Leone Lawn Tennis Association after losing election to the former Tennis president Arthur Harvey.
Mohamed Turay started as the Secretary General of Swimming for some years and was few months back elected as the president of Swimming. The delegates voted through secret ballots to fill in the various positions at the Bitumani Hotel at Aberdeen in Freetown.
After the election Prince Sualley who pulled 23 votes out of 28 votes and he was declared as the new NOC President, Kelvin Kellie got 4 votes and Mohamed A. Turay got 1 vote.
Idrisa Massaquio went unopposed for the post of Vice President, Unisa Deen Kargbo (President of Paralympic Commission) in a tight contest was voted as the new Treasurer of NOCSL with 13 votes. Ibrahim G T Sankon President of Golf Association got 8 votes and Captain Joseph Kanu President of Softball and Baseball got 7 votes. Oness Abayormi Johnson president of Taekwondo was Ex-officio 1 position with 23 votes Victor Amara went unopposed for the Ex-officio 2 position.
In his address the outgoing president, Dr. Coker thanked the Olympic Committee members for their trust in him for the past years. He assured the new executive that he will always be with them but this time round as an adviser.
Prince Sualley thanked Dr. Coker whom he said is his mentor and that he will always seek advice from him. The Director of Sports Haroun Korgie thanked the NOC Executive and the members for conducting free, fair and transparent election.
He assured the new executive of government support and asked that they in return should also give support to the government. One of the losing presidential candidate Kelvin Kellie told the new executive that the election is over and that he is ready to give support to them when needed.
