Team Nigeria will today know their fate as they storm the Polish embassy in Abuja after tabling visas request to honour this year’s World Scrabble Championship. The event is billed for Warsaw, Poland. The team is expected to storm the Polish embassy this morning for the visas after an earlier attempt suffered a setback. Staff of the embassy had insisted that the timing of their applications was too short for processing visas. Team Nigeria is seeking visas to Poland to participate in the 2011 World Scrabble Championship scheduled to hold between October 12 and 16.
Speaking to Leadership Sports yesterday ahead of today’s visit to the embassy, president of Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Toke Aka said until they are given assurance of getting the visas on or before Friday, October 7, they would not be leaving the embassy. “We will visit the embassy today. We had appointment with them yesterday but it has been shifted forward because of the holiday.
They have to issue us the visas or give us assurance that we will get it on or before Friday. If not, we will not accept any excuse,” he said.
Nigeria’s officials had approached the Polish embassy for the visas since September 19, but the embassy officials insisted that they should forward their application online.
After complying with the online registration directive, the embassy officials said the timing was too short, claiming it will take them more than 14 days to process and issue visas for the team.
The format for this year’s championship is of 36-round tournament with top two players for the final. There are 114 places provisionally allocated to competitors from around the world. Team Nigeria if given visa will feature five players. The team is currently in camp ahead of the tournament.