‘NOC did not have a final list of athletes and events from the AFN that would have shown Ofili was registered for the 100m event,’ says NOC’s Fadele

Samuel Fadele, the man responsible for confirming Nigeria’s entries for sports events under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), says the ‘NOC did not have a final list of athletes and events from the Athletics Federation.’

Fadele, in his testimony before the Investigative Committee set up by former Sports Development Minister, John Owan Enoh to unravel, among other issues, why Favour Ofili was not registered for the 100m event despite qualifying to compete in the event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, insists he only received two lists from Rita Moshindi, the Secretary General of the AFN.

He also said he did not receive from the AFN any list for individual events that would have shown Ofili was registered by AFN for the 100 meters.

‘Throughout the athlete registration process, I only received two lists from the Secretary General of AFN. The first between 1st and 5th of May 2024 was a list on “Doping Control” for the athletes.

‘The second was a WhatsApp message confirming the names for the men’s and women’s relay events which I requested for on 8th July 2024, so I could enter them appropriately,’ he said in his testimony contained in the 56-page report submitted to the National Sports Commission by the Committee.

Reproduced here is Samuel Fadele’s testimony unedited.

‘I have worked for the Nigeria Olympic Committee for about 11 years now. I am responsible for confirming Nigeria’s entries for sports events under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

‘Generally, the names of qualified athletes in every sport and for each event are prepopulated (pre-loaded) on the IOC portal by their respective International Federations. All that the National Olympic Committees do is to confirm acceptance of the slots reserved for their athletes by ticking off the appropriate boxes.

‘I am in charge of ticking the boxes for the Nigeria Olympic Committee.

‘In order to be sure that all our athletes are properly registered, I usually request that our Sports Federations give me their final list of entries per athlete, per event. For most other sports, their entries are straightforward, but for Athletics, it can be a bit complex because one athlete may be entered for more than one event.

‘In the case of Favour Ofili, I ticked off her name for the 200 meters and 4X100 relays because that was all that was pre-loaded against her name on the IOC portal. She was not entered for the 100 meters.

‘If she had been entered for the 100 meters and I didn’t tick her off, I would not have been able to submit the list of the entire Nigerian contingent. The portal would have rejected my submission.

‘Unfortunately, the NOC did not have a final list of athletes and events from the Athletics Federation. If we had that list, I would have been able to spot Ofili’s omission from the 100 meters on the IOC portal and reported it so that the omission could be corrected before the deadline for submission of entries.

‘Throughout the athlete registration process, I only received two lists from the Secretary General of AFN. The first between 1st and 5th of May 2024 was a list on “Doping Control” for the athletes.

‘The second was a WhatsApp message confirming the names for the men’s and women’s relay events which I requested for on 8th July 2024, so I could enter them appropriately. I did not receive from the AFN any list for individual events that would have shown Ofili was registered by AFN for the 100 meters.

‘With regard to how my email address got to World Athletics data base, the Secretary General of AFN requested for it because World Athletics needed one contact person from NOC in addition to their original contact person from the AFN.

‘I didn’t have any access to the World Athletics portal as a result. My only access is to the IOC portal.

‘Myself and Emmanuel Nweri are the only two that have the NOC password to the IOC portal.’