Okowa: Ofili has not been picking my calls since the Paris 2024 Olympics fiasco

Tonobock Ojuru Okowa, President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, has revealed that sprinter and reigning Nigeria 100m champion, Favour Ofili has not been picking her telephone calls since the athlete was denied the chance to run in the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics by officials of both the AFN and Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC.

Testifying before the Investigative Committee set up by the former Sports Development, John Enoh to investigate, among other issues, the non-registration of Ofili for the blue ribband event despite meeting the qualification standard set by World Athletics and winning the event at the Nigeria Championships in Benin City.

‘I have tried to comfort her (Ofili) but, right now, she doesn’t even want to talk to me. She’s not picking my calls. I know that she’s angry with me, but she will come out it,’ Okowa said in his testimony to the Committee and washed his hands off the disgraceful act in which two principal officers of the AFN were recommended for sanctions for negligence and poor judgement.

Okowa said he was in ‘total shock when I heard about Favour Ofili’s omission from the women’s 100 meters event at the Paris Olympics Games. I wondered how on earth that could
have happened to one of our promising athletes.’

‘As President of AFN, I leave matters such as the registration of athletes to the responsible officers in the Federation. So, when the mistake was discovered, I called
the Secretary General (Rita Mosindi) and the Technical Director (Samuel Onikeku) to find out what went wrong. They both told me that the mistake was from the Nigeria
Olympic Committee (NOC).

‘I called Chief Solomon Ogba, vice president of the NOC who, incidentally, was a former President of AFN. He assured me that they (NOC) were doing everything to solve the problem. But, unfortunately, they did not succeed and Ofili missed out of the 100 meters race.

‘Favour Ofili is like a daughter to me, so you can imagine my disappointment that this happened to her while I am the President of AFN. She worked so hard to get the qualification, but she couldn’t run the race at the biggest stage of the Olympics. That will be very disappointing for any athlete.

‘Favour is a tough girl. She has a very strong character. I have tried to comfort her but, right now, she doesn’t even want to talk to me. She’s not picking my calls. I know that she’s angry with me, but she will come out it.

‘She is still very young and I am sure that she will have another opportunity at future Olympics because she’s so talented. But we must put a stop to the kind of carelessness that led to her omission from the 100 meters event in Paris. We shouldn’t be doing that to our athletes,’ he said in his testimony.