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Adeleye has no business on AFN board, Ebewele tells appeals committee

By Gowon Akpodonor
22 June 2017   |   4:03 am
In the build up to the election, Adeleye, a former 400m runner emerged as the Athletes Representative into the AFN board, where 256 athletes voted between him and Henry Okorie just before an AFN All-comers meet in Abuja.

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.

• They lack knowledge of the sport, says athletes representative

Former Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), 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. But Adeleye fired back yesterday insisting that those making such claims do not know much about Nigerian athletics.

In the build up to the election, Adeleye, a former 400m runner emerged as the Athletes Representative into the AFN board, where 256 athletes voted between him and Henry Okorie just before an AFN All-comers meet in Abuja.

At that election supervised by AFN Secretary General, Amaechi Akawo, he (Adeleye) got 184 votes as against 63 votes by Okorie, while nine votes were declared as void. However, Ebewele, who was earlier elected into the AFN board as representative of Coaches/Technical officers, but was disqualified from taking part in the election, told The Guardian yesterday that Adeleye finding his way into the AFN board was abnormal, insisting that he never represented Nigeria at any international competition as stipulated by the election guidelines.

“I have made it clear to the Appeals Committee that Sunday Adeleye has no business being in the AFN board because he has never represented Nigeria once not to talk of twice as stipulated by the elections guidelines. We have records of all athletes who represented this country in international competitions, and Adeleye’s name is not among. These are some of the abnormities recorded during the election, and we won’t accept it.

“Our position is clear. Rosa Collins must be allowed into the board and she has to re-contest for the AFN presidency. If we are not satisfied with the decision of the Appeal Committee, we will proceed further because I believe we can still get justice in this country,” Ebewele stated.

On his part, Adeleye told The Guardian that he met all necessary requirements, insisting that he represented Nigeria at the 2003 All Africa Games (COJA), as well as the Abuja International Meets, also in 2003, which was used as test run for the Games.

“I also won so many medals for the country, but anybody that is doubting me should approach the AFN secretariat for clarification,” Adeleye stated. The seven-member electoral appeals committee is chaired by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, AbdulRazak Salau, with a representative of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Aminu Idris; Director at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Maharaja Mahmoud; Chairman of State Directors of Sports Forum, Tunde Kazeem; Emmanuel Zira; and the Legal Adviser of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Carol Ojukwu, as the Secretary.

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