An Audit Committee set up by the Executive Board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria has recommended that President Tonobok Okowa should refund N40M and the Secretary-General be redeployed immediately away from the Federation. www.aclsports.com reports
The Audit Committee headed by Tafida Gadzama (AFN First Vice-President) noted with dismay that the Secretary-General Mrs Rita Moshindi refused to bring to the Committee most of the documents supporting monies she disbursed on behalf of the Federation.
It was also found that Mrs Moshindi did not follow all the procedures with regards to the disbursement of funds of the organisation. According to documents obtained by ACLSports.com, she “refunded the president of the Federation from the sponsorship funds given to the Federation by Premium Trust Bank.” An action the Audit Committee observed to a “collusion to defraud the Federation” by Mrs Moshindi and Mr Okowa.
“The Committee notes the Secretary General’s disingenuous efforts to tie the President’s spending (donations) to the Premium Trust Bank without considering the implication of her fraudulent actions on the image of the AFN.”
The Audit Committee found it strange that Mrs Moshindi refunded the “expenses of the president” when there was no record of any previous agreement that Federation will refund the president. She was asked to provide proof that there was agreement to refund, the secretary-general could not even though she had previously said there was one.
The AFN secured sponsorship with Premium Trust Bank to the tune of N70m but this was subject to 30% broker’s fees to Nilayo Sports. According to the terms of the sponsorship, the AFN was to set up a Competition Management Committee to oversee every competition in the sponsorship. This was not done.
An SPV account was also supposed to be set up “to warehouse the sponsorship funds from Premium Trust Bank” but at the time of the Committee report was compiled it had not been done. Furthermore, competitions under the agreement were supposed to be named after sponsor – Premium Trust Bank. They were not.
In a very scathing conclusion, the Audit Committee recommended:
1. The Secretary General should refund all monies spent without budgets and approvals.
2. The Federal Ministry of Sports should urgently redeploy the Secretary General as she has proved not to have the
capacity to head the secretariat of the federation and be its chief administrative and accounting officer.
3. The President should, immediately, refund to the AFN the N40m he obtained by deceit in form of refund for his donations.
4. There should be a committee that will prepare budgets for all AFN events and activities, especially sponsored events.
Members of the Audit Committee were Victor Okorie, Oludare Esan, Samuel Onikeke and Maria Worphil with Gadzama as the Chairman. The Audit covered the period November 2022 to September 2023 with the report signed and dated 31st October 2023.
AFN’s Okowa did not respond to messages to comment on this
