AFN Elections 2025: Okowa, Onikeku may be disqualified if NSC enforces its Guidelines on Federation
Outgoing president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, Tonobok Ojuru Okowa, and ‘technical director’, Samuel Onikeku may be disqualified from next month’s elections into the board of the Federation if the National Sports Commission enforces its 2025 National Sports Federations Guidelines on the AFN.
The Guidelines, the Commission says, are necessary to ensure a robust, transparent, and credible election which it says is vital to the growth and repositioning of the Sports Sector in line with International best practices.
Under the eligibility rule, the Guidelines states inter-alia that persons found wanting in the discharge of their official duties by an Investigative panel will not be allowed to contest elections into any of the National Sports Federations.
This Guidelines rule on eligibility reads inter-alia: ‘Candidates must not have any criminal record, or conviction, sanction or fine by any court of law or any competent authority or investigative panel.’
An AFN Audit Committee set up by a resolution of the Federation’s board in September 2023 asked Okowa to refund the N40m he approved for himself for a purported loan to the AFN.
According to the Audit Committee report, there was no agreement reached between Okowa and the AFN board regarding any loan, and this much was confirmed by Rita Mosindi, the AFN Secretary General at the time.
Like Okowa, Onikeku was indicted by a Ministerial Investigative Committee set up to investigate Nigeria’s negative exposure at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Onikeku, the head of the AFN technical subcommittee at the time, was indicted for his role in the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the 100m event at the Games, especially after the Customs officer confessed to knowing that the sprinter was not registered for the event at least two weeks to the start of the event.
‘Conclusive evidence also revealed that the Technical Director of AFN, Mr. Samuel Onikeku demonstrated POOR JUDGEMENT by not reporting nor acting on information about the non-registration of his own athlete, Favour Ofili, for the women’s 100 meters event when he first got a “hint” of the “rumour.”
‘Ofili’s situation might have been rescued if the Technical Director had reported or acted immediately on the information that he received.
‘Mr. Onikeku should be sanctioned by the Board of AFN of which he is a member,’ the investigative panel wrote in its report.
Ofili had also threatened not to represent Nigeria at the last World Relays (Nigeria eventually withdrew over visa issues) claiming those who bungled her Olympic dream are still walking free, taking decisions at the AFN.
The NSC has failed to act on the two reports despite claiming that all aspirants in the National Sports Federations elections will be subjected to integrity test.
Nigerians says they are waiting to see if it will be business as usual or Mallam Shehu Dikko will live p to his promise of getting only credible individuals who have never been found wanting to get into the boards of the National Sports Federations.
