By Uzor Odigbo
The 2017 constitution adopted at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) congress of November 16, 2017 has been adopted as the operating document for the governance of the federation.
This formed part of the resolutions at a two-day conflict resolution meeting between representatives of both the Confederation of Athletics Federation (CAA) and World Athletics (who joined via zoom) and members of the board of the AFN elected in 2017 held at ANOCA office in Abuja.
The resolutions read inter-alia: “The constitution proposed and approved by the annual general congress meeting of the AFN held in Abuja on 16 November 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).”
By this,the position of a Director General created by the now annulled amended 2017 constitution at an equally annulled congress held in December 2019 is an aberration and the chief administrative and financier officer of the AFN remains the Secretary General as stipulated in article 8.7.2 of the affirmed 2017 constitution.
It was also resolved that elections into the board of the AFN shall hold on June 14,2021 with the affirmed 2017 constitution governing the conduct of the election.
At the conflict resolution meeting, the faction of the AFN led by Olamide George, pointed to the alleged constitutional infractions committed by Mr Shehu Ibrahim Gusau as well as his alleged violation of World Athletics Integrity Code of Conduct bothering on conflict of interest regarding the payment of the contractual fee by PUMA paid into the bank account of Dynamic Sporting Solutions, a company owned by a member of the board, Sunday Adeleye, who, together with Gusau negotiated the deal reportedly on behalf of the Federation.
The faction alluded to the same infraction commited by Joseph Kinyua and David Okeyo who diverted Athletics Kenya fund to private accounts and got banned for life from track and field activities.
Eight elected board members were physically present at the meeting with the duo of Gusau and Adeleye refusing to sign the resolutions, threatening to go ahead with the court case instituted by Gusau.