The Chairman of the Delta State Athletics Association, Solomon Ogba has resigned from the present board of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) due to the continuous interference in their activities.
Ogba’s resignation came on the heels of his rumored removal this week as Philanthropist/Ex-Officio by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
He said state that the AFN constitution and rules have been relegated to the background while things are now done without recourse to the law binding the Federation.
Ogba said, “The level of interference is too much and the only option left is to resign.
“People should respect the constituted authority, they have divided the board, we have two factions I cannot be at the board and sit down particularly when the one who appointed me to be on the board as philanthropist quota, have violated the IAAF rules.
“When we talked about interference, I am talking about ministry. For instance, where ministry will have a meeting with some board members to impeach the President earlier this year and they wanted me to be a rubber stamp to that.
“There was a congress called by the President and board meeting they scuttled effort of the federation to do that and they are trying to call a separate board meeting in Abuja tomorrow (Tuesday) I will not be part of that.”
He tagged most of the Directors in the Ministry of Youth and Sports as wicked and evil people that do not want the progress of AFN and Sports at heart.
Ogba expressed: “It has been like this, every Minister that came left with a bad name, those Directors that are there are evil people.
The Directors have remained for more than a decade and maybe probably Tammy Danagogo who left with little dignity, every other minister left that place with a bad name something is fundamentally wrong, this country must look at this carefully and call people out.
In a swift reaction, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports described former AFN president as a drowning man who is afraid of been investigated.
The statement signed by the Media Aide to the minister, Kola Daniel said the cry about interference by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development at best is a false alarm.
It read, “The impending investigations over the World Athletics body funds which Solomon Ogba cannot account for has made him find the nearest exit with the hopes of halting the investigation which is unlikely.
“Ogba’s cry about interference by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development at best is a false alarm and an escapist excuse to divert attention from the real issue”.
It further said, “The Ministry under the leadership of the Minister, Sunday Dare is working to ensure sanity returns to the Sports Federations which necessitated the investigation into the missing $150,000 at the AFN.
“Solomon Ogba who is also the only board member of the Federation not properly sworn in, should have allowed the investigation run its course as he claims to be an advocate of doing things right. Instead, he chose the most convenient route at this time under the guise of undue interference from the Sports Ministry”.
