‘AFN Secretary General told me in Paris she didn’t think Ofili could cope with running both the 100m and 200m’, reveals NOC Official

Emmanuel Nweri, a contract staff of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) on Policy and Games since 2014, says Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, Secretary General, Mrs Rita Moshindi, told him in Paris she did not think Favour Ofili could cope with running both the 100m and 200m events at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This revelation was contained in Mr Nweri’s testimony to the Ministerial Investigative Committee set up by the former Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh on the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Nweri also revealed, in his testimony, how he called Mrs Moshindi on several occasions to submit the final list of track and field athletes in writing but did not get any response.

Here, unedited, is Mr Nweri’s testimony to the Committee:

‘I AM a contract staff of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) on Policy and Games since 2014.

‘My job is General Games Management which include ensuring the accreditation of Nigerian athletes and officials for events under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), making sports entries for our athletes, ensuring that their automatic qualifications are recognized and loaded on the IOC portal and meeting of deadlines.

‘For the Paris 2024 Olympics, I ensured that as our athletes qualified for their events in every sport and we were notified by their International Federations, the NOC confirmed acceptance of the qualification slot because if we didn’t confirm, IOC had the right to transfer the slot to other countries.

‘Some of our Sports Federations have challenges in record keeping and documentation, so I always have to double check.

‘For the Athletics contingent to Paris, I called the Secretary General of AFN, Mrs. Rita Mosindi, on several occasions to give me their Final List in writing so that the NOC
could confirm their entries on the IOC portal. I did not get any response from her.

‘I reported her to the Vice President of the NOC, Mr. Solomon Ogba, but still, I did not get the list. If NOC had got that list from the AFN, we would have been able to cross
check and spotted Favour Ofili’s omission from the 100 meters event.

‘I ran into the AFN Secretary General in Paris when the Favour Ofili matter had just come to everybody’s knowledge and we were looking for solutions.

‘She told me during a conversation that she didn’t think Ofili could cope with running both the 100 meters and 200 meters anyway. But she never said that the AFN did not register Ofili
for the 100 meters. It was just a casual conversation between us.’