By Uzor Odigbo
Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) board member, Rosa Collins, has accused the Sports Ministry of a deliberate attempt to cover up the $150.000 mistakenly remitted to the AFN by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).
In a chat in Lagos on Thursday, the former triple jump champion said, $15.000 dollars was supposed to be IAAF’s annual grant to AFN but the world’s Athletics body over paid AFN ($135.000) in absence of the AFN board for over six months.
The sports ministry didn’t enquire from AFN scribe on how the funds in AFN account got there. The sports ministry according to her, waited until the media broke the news, is this not a cover up? Collins queried.
The Abuja based business woman however called on the IAAF to institute a panel of inquiry to unravel the mystery behind the missing money, insisting that the sports ministry has no right to query its staff since it knew long enough about the money and the letter IAAF wrote the federation alerting it in June 2017 concerning the over- payment error.
Collins, also traced problems militating the AFN to what she described as inept leadership in the federation.
“if AFN has a good leadership in Shehu Gusau this problems won’t arise. This things happen when people are imposed on the federation. Gusau was never elected as AFN president and is hurting everyone. The image of the country is at stake over this avoidable scandal.”
Collins was emphatic on the punishment those indicted .must face if found guilty. “Those found guilty in the frudulent act must be be dismissed and jailed for causing so mush anguish to athletes who supposed to be the beneficiaries of the funds they shared”
She added, “Nigeria will be participating at the Commonwealth Games without proper preparation and someone felt very comfortable in sharing the money meant for that purpose. what a shame”