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We won’t abandon coach Toblow in death, says AFN boss

By Gowon Akpodonor
17 January 2020   |   2:28 am
Acting president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Olamide George says the federation would play active role in the burial of late coach Tobias Igwe also known as Toblow.

Acting president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Olamide George says the federation would play active role in the burial of late coach Tobias Igwe also known as Toblow.

Toblow, the greatest grassroots coach from Nigeria and the African continent produced great athletes like Mary Onyali, the Ezinwa brothers (Davidson and Osmond), Uchenna Emedolu, Victor Okorie and Raphael Ihunaegbo. He died late last year and will be buried on March 6, 2020 in his hometown, Isiala Mbano, Imo State.

Toblow’s wife had cried out in a chat with The Guardian during the week that no official of the AFN, Sports ministry and Imo State government had reached out to them since the coach died.However, Olamide George said yesterday that plans for the burial of Toblow would top AFN’s agenda during their board meeting in Abuja next Thursday.

He said: “There is no way the AFN will abandon Toblow in death. We will surely play a role in his burial considering the great work Toblow did for Nigeria, particularly on the field of athletics. “He produced a lot of top athletes for the country, and we are going to discuss the issue of his burial plans in our board meeting in Abuja next Thursday,” George stated.

According to the AFN boss, other issues like setting up of the technical committee as well as the marketing and sponsorship committee would be discussed during Thursday’s board meeting.

Meanwhile, United States-based Nigerian ex-400m runner, Victor Okorie, says he might fly into the country next month to pay his last respect to the late coach Toblow Okorie was one of the athletes produced by the late coach Toblow during the golden era of Nigerian athletics.

Okorie rose to become one of Nigeria’s most gifted hurdlers from the school sports system to rule the National Sports Festival, winning back to back in the 400m hurdles at Imo ‘98 and Bauchi ‘2000. Okorie also won a medal for Team Nigeria at Abuja 2003 COJA Games.

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