YESTERDAY'S  morning training of the national team; Super Eagles  suffered a hitch when officials of the National Stadium in Abuja, locked out the team from its morning training session.

The team had arrived the stadium at about 7:15am, but met the gates to the Practice Pitch firmly locked. For over ten minutes, Team Coordinator, Emmanuel Atta, Security Chief, ACP Gideon Akinsola and the Camp Commandant, Lt Col Rabiu Yandoto, battled to gain entrance into the training pitch to no avail.

When their patience ran out, the padlock to the training pitch was forced open for the team to gain entrance. It was then the outrage begun, when athletes and other visitors to the stadium told Eagles officials that the gate was shut against the national team immediately the officials sighted the bus of the team driving into the stadium arena after which they took to their heels in opposite directions. They further revealed that the officials said they were being owed backlog of salaries and therefore see the shutting out of the national team from training as an opportunity to vent their spleen.

After a frantic search, one of the Stadium supervisors, Sunday Ofele, was apprehended by the security team attached to the Eagles and he confessed that it was the Stadium Manager, who said he should lock out the national team.

When the Stadium Manager, Katmwan Dungse, was confronted, he said his instruction was that entrance into the training arena should be restricted because British Embassy officials were having a function at the Velodrome inside the stadium and not for his officials to lock out the national team.