Minister of Sports Development John Enoh says the ministry can't be blamed for the mishap that happened to Ese Ukpeseraye, the first Nigerian cyclist to represent the country at the Olympic Games.

Ukpeseraye revealed in a post on X that she had to borrow a bicycle from her German colleagues to compete in the games highlighting the challenges she faced in her attempt to make history for Nigeria.

“Due to the short notice, I had to compete at the Keirin & Sprint. I had no bicycle to race with on the tracks,” Ukpeseraye wrote in her tweet. “In the spirit of sportsmanship, the German team came to my rescue by offering me a bicycle.”

The development generated mixed reactions on social and traditional media with many condemning the ministry for lack of preparations.

Speaking in an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday, August 14, Enoh disclosed that the ministry can't be blamed for the mishap in Paris.

"The moment it happened, I immediately called the president of the Cycling Federation to find out what happened. And the details are before team Nigeria left and qualified for Paris, Nigeria had qualified for just one race in cycling. The Ministry made provisions for each of the sporting federations in terms of their competition pieces of equipment and in this case for cycling, it will be the bicycle that will be required for that competition."

"When they arrived in Paris, their attention was called by the international body that a country had been disqualified and two more races were now awarded to Nigeria."

"That particular equipment they used to compete after paying and ordering, you needed to wait for about two months when we were already there at the Olympics."

"What we now did was to liaise with Ese's school in Spain and partnership with a German company, we will be able to get the bike that she used to compete. That is what happened. It wasn't a failure in the ministry."