#trending: Sports Minister, Dalung’s “spended” Grammar

BEVERLY HILLS, December 19, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, is in the news again and, for the wrong reason!

While Nigerians were still grappling with his confession that his ministry didn't make provisions for the Super Falcons simply because he hadn't thought they could win, his latest gaffe has to do with grammatical blunder.

In a video posted by Channels Television, Dalung, while being questioned by the House of Representatives Committee on Sports over issues of disbursement of funds to the various sports federations, denied allegations that his ministry was corrupt.

But appearing before the House Committee on Friday to defend allocations to the sports ministry, Dalung said, “Before we left for Rio, we wrote and requested for the release of monies appropriated for in the budget and it has not been released for the federations.

“Four hundred and fifty million naira was appropriated for Olympics, then we spent far far far beyond that, so… monies that were given to the federation could not have been monies meant for Olympics.”

A member of the committee, Danburam Nuhu observed that the ministry ought not to spend beyond the funds approved by the National Assembly, stating that, “It's a serious matter Mr Chairman, because he's spending outside the confines of the approval given by the national assembly.”

Responding, Dalung said, “The funds 'spended were properly spended because we got them from intervention funds. We got these funds from intervention funds from Mr. President.”

Nigerians have since the video was posted come at the Sports Minister for this grammatical hara-kiri, whereby he used “spended” twice when he should have used spent.