Abuja 2003: Thieves Storm Games Village

OFFICIALS discovered on Saturday that one of the flats allocated to Team Nigeria had been burgled and fans that were stored there removed. "We were surprised to discover that "the fans had been stolen," said an official at the Games village. "What surprised us more was that the thieves did not remove any of the burglary proofs or break any door. It was when they started looking for where they came in from that we discovered that they broke in through the roof," he said.

There have been serious concerns about security of the Games village. People who do not have Games accreditation that grant them access to the Games village still gain entry. "How would anyone have come into a house through the roof in this Games village and none of the security people saw him? He stole fans, things as heavy as fans, and nobody saw him? How did he get to the roof?" a team official asked. "There is good reason to be worried about our safety."

The Games accreditation card does not come with embedded security codes. The implication is that the security personnel depend only on sight to authenticate accreditation cards. Some of the security personnel do not understand the limits that the symbols that the cards bear indicate, with the result that once people have accreditation cards, they can go into the Games village. Private security personnel and armed policemen are in charge of security at the Games village