Gara Gombe warns AFN on dangers of not resolving their differences
Chairman Gombe State AthIetics Association Hon. Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe has tasked the Board of the AthIetics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to amicably resolve lingering issues among members before it’s too late.
Gombe who stated this in a Press Statement made available to newstap.com.ng said, “Members of the AFN Congress have taken keen interest in the in-fighting going on among AFN Board Members and wants it resolved in the interest of athIetes and other stakeholders.
The statement reads thus:
“We members of Congress of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria have been most tolerant with the Board, as at today, the Board have placed the entire Federation into Moral and Credibility Crisis.
“We ( Congress) have kept quiet not because we don’t know what to do, not because we are cowards, not because we don’t know our authority but we tried to give peace a chance to see if the board could retract its steps but the more we look the other way, the more the board’s in-fighting continues unabated”.
Hon. Gara Gombe insisted that should the AFN Board delay in resolving their differences, there would be consequences of unimaginable magnitude from Congress members.
“The stinking smell of corruption, lack of accountability, transparency, unity, Good governance oozing out from the board of AFN is not only unimaginable but unprecedented.
“Very soon we (Congress) will give the board an ultimatum to resolve all their differences and stop the in- fighting presently going in among them and failure to do that will amount to a unified and sustained revolt from the congress in view of taking back our Federation.
“Be informed that not all congress members that the board can influence or throw crumbs at. Many of us are well established and comfortable.
We all know how some of us became Board Members, we also know everyone’s contributions to Athletics or lack of it but above all, we are the congress and authority lies with us.
Those who have ears let them hear” Gombe concluded.
It would be recalled that in recent times, the AFN board has been bedeviled with lingering issues such that some aggrieved members have accused the AFN leadership of over-protecting the Federation’s Secretary General Rita Mosindi who was allegedly indicted in AFN special report to have mismanaged the Federation’s funds.
Again, the alleged mismanagement of AFN sponsorship funds for which the AFN helmsman Chief Tonobok Okowa withdrew N40 million as funds loaned to the federation also raised some dust.
Hon. Gara Gombe is therefore, demanding quick resolution of these issues before it begins to affect set goals of the Federation.
He avarred that the Unity of AFN members must be first restored, the protection Mrs. Mosindi is enjoying from the Sports Minister and AFN President must be withdrawn for her to face the alleged financial misconduct leveled against her by the AFN Special Panel Report.
