The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has set June 14 as the date for fresh elections into its board despite the federation’s leadership crisis that has refused to end.
It will be recalled that since 2018 the sport federation has been embroiled in leadership tussle between Engineer Ibrahim Gusau and Hon. Olamide George.
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However, the international athletics governing body, World Athletics (WA) in zoom meeting with the two factions, alongside some officials from the Sports Ministry on Wednesday resolved that elections into the board of the AFN shall hold on June 14,2021 at a venue to be decided by the Congress which is the apex body.
According to a source in the Olamide George camp, the Confederation of Athletics Federation (CAA) and World Athletics (WA) adopted the 2017 constitution as the operating document for the governance of the federation.
The source further said that Engr Gusau and Adeleye had refused to sign the resolutions while remaining adamant to see the end of their case in court.
However, the technical director, Sunday Adeleye who was in the meeting told Daily Trust that the 2017 constitution was not adopted as claimed by the other faction.
According to him, the AFN is working with the amended constitution of 2019 which whittled down the powers of the president as opposed to the 2017 constitution.
“They wanted to make use of the 2017 constitution for the sake of peace but we said no because the matter is in court. Are we going to infringe on the court orders?.
“Yes, we refused to sign the resolutions. We had to talk to the board members and our legal team first before taking actions.
“We will follow the court cases to its logical conclusion. Can someone bring out documents and say we should sign? World Athletics will never bend rules, why should we bend rules? Just because we want peace, we will live under illegality?,” he retorted.
It is in the midst of these unresolved and contentious issues that the athletics federation has fixed June 14 for elections
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