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Nigeria’s participation fraudulent, says Ebewele

By Gowon Akpodonor
11 August 2017   |   3:56 am
Former Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Brown Ebewele has described Nigeria’s participation at the on-going London 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championship as fraudulent.

Brown Ebewele has told members of the Appeal Committee set up by the Sports Ministry to consider and decide on appeals and petitions arising from the just concluded sports federations polls that one of those elected into the board, Sunday Adeleye has no business in the federation’s ruling body.

• To seek court injunction against Gusau-led AFN board

Former Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Brown Ebewele has described Nigeria’s participation at the on-going London 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championship as fraudulent.

“The board of the AFN as it is now is full of fraudulent members,” Ebewele told The Guardian yesterday. “The emergence of Ibraham Gusau as the AFN president is fraudulent because he did not win the North West zonal election. The Sports Minister only imposed him on us and we won’t take it. The Athletes representative on the board, Sunday Adeleye is also an impostor because he did not meet the requirement. Another person who does not have any business being on the AFN board is Fidelis Gadzama. There is fraud everywhere and we are going to seek court injunction to stop this illegal board. There is justice everywhere and it is only impatient people that do not get justice,” he said yesterday.

Ebewele, who was reinstated by the appeals committee as the representative of coaches/technical association to the board of AFN, revealed that Gusau played what he described as ‘fast one’ on the board members regarding Nigeria’s participation in the IAAF Championship in London.

“In what was supposed to be our inaugural meeting, Gusau, in his usual characteristic manner, stood up and said he was going to look for money to borrow for the trip to London. Before we could say anything, Gusau ended the meeting without explaining to us how and where he was going to get the money. That is their usual trick of conniving with sports ministry officials to siphon money from the government, and we won’t tolerate it this time,” Ebewele stated.

On the performance of Nigerian athletes in London so far, he said: “In the first place, our taking part in the championship was a big fraud, and you don’t expect anything good to come from such fraudulent participation. Tell me the business of the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung in London. When did he become a coach? I think the Presidency will be doing a great disservice to Nigerian sports if it continued to tolerate this rubbish within the system. It has to stop.”

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