Okowa: Ministerial Investigative Committee Report on Ofili, Others Are Null And Void

Outgoing President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, Tonobok Okowa says Favour Ofili’s cry for justice was not based on any logical premise as he dismissed the report of the Ministerial Investigative Committee set up by the former Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh to probe Nigeria’s negative exposure at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Ofili’s non-registration for the 100m event was one of the negative exposures after the then 21 year old discovered on the eve of the Games that she was not registered for the blue ribband evet despite meeting all the conditions necessary for registration.

The Committee found the AFN culpable in the unfortunate and disgraceful act with two officials, Rita Mosindi, the Secretary General at the time and Samuel Onikeku, the head of the technical subcommittee indicted.

Okowa has however told The Guardian newspaper the Committee’s work was just an effort in futility as its report was neither submitted to Enoh, the man who set up the Committee, before his removal by President Bola Tinubu nor to Shehu Dikko, the new helmsman at the National Sports Commission.

‘Following what happened at the Paris Olympics, the then Sports Minister, John Owan Enoh, set up a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the omission of Ofili’s name from the country’s 100m list.

‘Don’t forget that the committee did not submit its report to the minister before he was removed from office. The committee did not also submit its report to the present leadership of the National Sports Commission (NSC).

‘The committee just published its findings on pages of newspapers. Who did the committee submit its reports to? Nobody. As far as we are concerned in the AFN, the committee report was null and void.

So, for some people to claim that Ofili is angry with some people in the AFN board is wrong because neither the former sports minister nor the NSC leadership is privy to what is contained in the committee report,’ Okowa was quoted as saying in the report.

A member of the outgoing board of the AFN, Dare Esan, has however picked holes in Okowa’s statement to The Guardian.

‘I remember the head of the Committee got the go ahead of Dikko to release the report to the public, a move applauded by all genuine lovers of the sport. Last November, Dikko endorsed the report’s release to ensure transparency and address concerns raised during Nigeria’s Olympic and Paralympic campaign in Paris.

‘I also remember Okowa told us at the AFN board meeting months after the ugly incident and the publication of the report that the Ofili issue would not be discussed at the meeting.

‘It is unfortunate that a man that is the head of the administration of the sport of athletics in Nigeria will dismiss something as serious as what happened to one of AFN nay Nigeria’s star athletes in Paris with such an unpresidential comment.

‘It shows the quality of leadership at the Federation,’ said Esan who has been at the vanguard of getting the AFN to conduct its affairs professionally and in accordance the provisions of its Constitution.