EFFC begins fresh probe of AFN over misappropriation and mismanagement of Premium Trust Bank sponsorship money
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, has started an investigation into how Premium Trust Bank sponsorship money has been misappropriated and mismanaged by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN.
The AFN signed a three year sponsorship deal with the new generation bank in June 2023, almost a year after it was reportedly sealed at a press conference in Birmingham on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Games.
The deal is worth N300m with N100m payable every year with N70m accruable to the federation.
An audit committee set up by a resolution of the AFN board in September 2023 uncovered how the money and other monies were spent without the board’s approval where necessary while a disputed N40m was paid to the President of the AFN, Tonobok Okowa as refund for a N40m loan he claimed to have granted to the federation without the knowledge and approval of the board.
While the Secretary General admitted to the Committee that there was no agreement signed by the President and the AFN board on the purported N40m loan, she refused to submit evidence of approval of money spent to execute some of the federation’s projects including the documents related to the payment of the N40m loan.
With the intervention of the EFFC, the AFN Secretary General will be forced to submit all relevant documents pertaining to the contractual agreement between the AFN and Premium Trust Bank, the expenditure carried out under watch.
The antigraft agency would likely ask the Secretary General to supply the documents she used to pay the purported N40m loan, and who gave the approval for the payment and the loan agreement.
The antigraft agency would also be interested to know which bank warehouses the money from the bank after the Secretary General admitted to the audit committee that the money was not paid into a SPV account to be set up between the sponsor and the federation as contained in the terms of the agreement between the bank and the Federation.
The AFN Secretary General would also likely be asked why she was using her personal bank for official government work as seen in the payments she made in some of the Golden League competitions and the National Trials in Benin City among others.
The EFFC would also be interested in seeing documents that authorised the Federation to borrow as much as N35m from the Premium Trust Bank sponsorship fee to prosecute the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary when there was a budgetary approval from government and World Athletics responsible for the travel and accommodation of all the athletes and a few officials that attended the Championships.
The EFCC should also be keen to know if it was contained in the agreement with the bank that the money they paid into the AFN to organise competitions can be borrowed without the knowledge of the board and approval of the sponsor.
Sportsnow.com.ng recalls the audit committee recommended the removal of the Secretary General and asked her to refund all the monies she spent without approval.
This was outside the affirmation of her incompetence to lead the AFN as its chief administrative and accounting officer, a position the Ministerial Investigative Committee also adopted while recommending that she should be sanctioned for the role she played in the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics last summer.
