World Athletics orders AFN to hold congress before Tokyo Olympics

Nigeria’s relay team ready for Poland trip

World Athletics (WA) yesterday ordered the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to inaugurate a congress that will usher in new executive board members before June 14, 2021.

The order was handed down to the AFN at the end of the crisis resolution meeting with visiting officials of the world body in Abuja yesterday.

The two top WA officials, made up of the chairman of Athletics Kenya, Jackson Tuwei, and a Chief Executive Officer of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), a Senegalese, had been in Abuja since on Monday for the crisis resolution meeting with the two warring factions of the AFN, one led by Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau and the other by Olamide George.

The meeting had ended in deadlock on Tuesday as the Olamide George-led faction stood its ground, insisting that Gusau remained impeached over alleged corrupt practices.

The Guardian learned yesterday that the WA/CAA affirmed the 2017 AFN Constitution and also set elective congress for June 14, 2021, just before the commencement of Tokyo Olympics Games.

The resolutions made available to The Guardian yesterday read: “The constitution proposed and approved by the yearly general congress meeting of the AFN held in Abuja on November 16, 2017 (the AFN constitution) applies and continues to govern the AFN and the executive board shall reaffirm this fact within the state member federations (i.e AFN’s membership).”

It also resolved that elections into the board of the AFN should hold on June 14, 2021, with the affirmed 2017 constitution governing the conduct of the election.

Sources said at the meeting said the duo of Gusau and Sunday Adeleye refused to sign the resolutions, threatening to go ahead with the court case, which Gusau had instituted.

Meanwhile, an official of the AFN has revealed that Nigerian athletes for the World Relay in Poland have been told to assemble in Abuja tomorrow to procure their visas for the trip.