It is an open secret that the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria is presently in turmoil over the $150,000 grants erroneously paid to the country in 2017 by the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF.
The IAAF had wanted to send $15,000 into the AFN account but ended up crediting the federation’s account with a whopping $150,000.
It is also a known fact that when the international body discovered its error, it quickly demanded for a refund of the excess payment but the dollars had already developed wings.
Consequently, over the past few weeks, reports were rife that the IAAF would ban the Nigeria from international competitions, if the money was not refunded within a stipulated time.
This ban threat sent shock waves across to all affected parties – the Sports Ministry, the AFN, and the athletes as well.
However, the crisis triggered by the missing dollars degenerated days to the departure of the immediate past Minister of Youths and Sports development, Barrister Solomon Dalung from office on Tuesday after he held series of meetings with the AFN board members in a bid to prevent Nigeria from being banned by IAAF.
Trust Sports gathered that in one of the closed door meetings held by both parties, Dalung actually spoke to the IAAF’s president, Sebastian Coe on phone reaffirming the country’s willingness to refund the money.
It is said few hours to his departure, the former minister of sports paid 50% of the ‘missing’ IAAF money to ward off the impending ban.
However, the Technical Director of the AFN, Sunday Adeleye, in an interview slammed the former minister for meeting with selected members of the board who later demanded for the Federation president, Ibrahim Gusau to step down.
“We feel we should let Nigerians know the true picture and what is happening in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria because the minister has thrown a lot of people into confusion right now saying different stories. We have a different story from the ministry and another one from the federation.
“The issue of $150,000 has actually put us in trouble because we exposed where the money is and of course it was shocking to see few people invited to the minister’s office.
“I barged into the meeting and saw four persons saying they are the executive board of the AFN. 13 members constitute the board and when you have 3 or 4 persons signing that they want to suspend the president and we are saying it is not proper but they have the backing of the minister. Why the sudden approval of the suspension because the minister is leaving,” he queried.
Adeleye however stated that the remaining members of the AFN board have passed a vote of confidence on the Gusau while berating the former minister for agreeing to pay up the missing money.
“We have already passed a vote of confidence on our president and we want to move athletics forward. Since we came on board in 2017, the ministry never gave us a dime. It is not true the ministry gave us N39m. N30m was released for us for the procurement of kits for athletes for Asaba 2018.
“So, the minister that is saying that the federation misappropriated the money, why did he agree pay 50% of the money? The minister is trying to leave behind controversy if not why call four members out of 14 for a closed-door meeting?.
“And according to the constitution, only the president can call for a meeting or congress. Where did they come up with their meeting and resolution to suspend the president and take over the board while subjecting him to investigation?. Was any fund released to him?
The technical director further revealed that the AFN president never met the contentious money in the board’s account upon assumption of office in July 2017.
He also revealed that the sole signatory to the AFN account where the money was paid into is a staff of the sports ministry.
“Ibrahim Gusau never met the money in AFN account. The people who know about it have already agreed to pay back 50% of the money to IAAF which includes the ministry.
The money was paid into AFN account but the sole signatory to the account is a staff of the ministry and the person is Amaechi Akawo.
Meanwhile, the AFN vice president, Hon. Olamide George in a separate chat with Trust Sports accused his boss, Gusau of misappropriating the funds for his personal use just as he declared that the president is suspended from office pending when the investigation against him is concluded.
“We called for an emergency board meeting over what is going on in the federation. We are all aware of misappropriation of funds and we are all aware of the IAAF $150,000 erroneously paid into our account.
“We are also aware of the crisis between the athletes and the federation. We are also aware of the funds approved by the ministry without the consent of the board.
“These are issues that have generated crisis in the federation. We decided to call for an emergency meeting because the president has failed to call for the meeting but in line with the constitution, if the president fails to call for meeting, the vice president has the capacity to call for such meeting.
“We have met and resolved that the president, Hon Ibrahim Gusau should step aside pending the investigation by the board.
The vice-president also confirmed the part payment of the funds back to the IAAF by the erstwhile sports minster.
It was also gathered that Dalung approved N39 million to Gusau to be refunded to the IAAF shortly after the Asaba 2018 African Senior Athletics Championships.
Instead of following the minister’s directives, George said Gusau and Adeleye allegedly used the money to purchase kits for Nigerian athletes without informing other board members
“It is important to know that the ministry has paid part of the money to the AFN. The sad part is the board was not even aware that the ministry had paid some money back until when the minister called for a meeting and he opened up and the president could not deny.
Meanwhile, as board members of the federation continue to trade blames and also accuse one another of corruption, the good news is that Nigeria will no longer be banned by the IAAF, at least not now.
However, the crisis may take another dimension as the purported impeachment of president Gusau is still not settled and the balance of the ‘missing dollars’ is yet to be paid.
Therefore, the coming days will surely throw up more drama in the AFN as the factionalized board and the sports ministry will engage one another in titanic battles over who should take responsbility for the payment of the balance of the once ‘missing IAAF money’.
