Gara Gombe Calls For Sack of AFN Boss Over AIU Probe
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of Athletics and Other Sports Development Initiative, Hon. Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe has called for the immediate removal of President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) over Nigeria’s athletes U-18 /U-20 age-cheat probe instituted by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
In a press statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Gombe said: “The recent query by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) did not come to me as a surprise.”
According to him, “The AFN under Tonobok Okowa has been a disappointment and embarrassment to Nigeria. The National Sports Commission (NSC) must and should not treat the matter with levity, but should they resolve to treat the issue with kid gloves, I won’t be surprised because it was same NSC that manipulated the system and supported Okowa’s emergence as President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria with nothing to show for it, encouraging monumental corruption, embezzlement, fraudulent activities, miss-management and lack of accountability under Okowa and arbitrariness without regards to the Constitution of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and without regards to the AFN Congres and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The Chairman of the NGO that advocates Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance in Sports insisted that, “This matter, must not go untouched.
“The same scandal that happened in Paris and some people in the defunct Ministry of Sports led by the former Minister John Owen Enoh claimed to set up a committee to investigate reasons behind the omission of Favour Ofili’s name from the 100m list.”
The statement further stated that, “The committee’s report was swept under the carpet. Nobody was punished or sent to jail. How could you give someone a job and it was concluded and you refused to talk about it.
“From the time the committee was set up, I said this committee were stooges, robots that can be directed on what to do and they have done it.
“Though the committee made some recommendations, no one knows the outcome of their recommendations. Nobody was indicted or punished. Nobody was sent to jail. We pretended everything was alright.
“Now, the same Athletics Federation of Nigeria is back with another scandal and I can assure you that before the end of the first quarter of 2026 and before the January 16th date given by AIU, they would be in another scandal to embarrass the Nation.
“Mr. President is too busy doing many things. If the National Sports Commission cannot help him to deal with those that are destroying AFN, then, the NSC have to go down with Okowa. It is either the NSC deal or remove Okowa outrightly or they would go with him.
“This is a fight to finish. January 16 is just around the corner, fortunately or unfortunately, it is a day after my birthday”, concludes the statement.
