Gusau Insists He’s Validly Elected AFN President

*Asks Federal High Court to decalare the election of Okowa, 11 others invalid

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

One year three months after Tonobok Okowa was elected as President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), a former chief of the track & field federation, Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, is asking  the Federal High Court in Abuja to declare him the validly elected president of the federation when the case comes up for hearing today.

Okowa and 12 Others were validly elected into office at an extraordinary and elective congress of the AFN held on the 13th and 14th of June, 2021 respectively in Abuja.

But Gusau now wants that election supervised by both the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Nigeria Olympic Committee to be declared as invalid, null and void.

In a suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/270/2021, Gusau is seeking a declaration that the elections that ushered in the administration of Tonobok Okowa on June 14, 2021 be declared invalid, null and void.

The embattled immediate past President of the AFN is therefore seeking an order setting aside the extraordinary congress held on June 13in Abuja as well as any resolution/deliberations and decisions reached at the well attended congress which had the representatives of the FMY&SD and the NOC as illegal and of no consequence.

The former member of the House of Representatives also wants an order of the court setting aside the elective congress held on the 14th of Junein Abuja as well as removing Okowa and the rest of his elected board members as the executive board of the AFN.

Gusau’s plea to the Federal High Court is coming against his rejection by World Athletics, the world governing body for the sport who has endorsed the June 13extraordinary congress and June 14elective congress held in Abuja.

World Athletics had specifically told Gusau in a strongly worded letter it does not recognise the kangaroo congress of the federation purportedly held in December 2019 and the amendment of the 2017 constitution of the AFN carried out at the said congress.

The world governing body also told the former AFN president the June 14elective congress must be held in accordance with the 2017 constitution which came into force in November 2017.

A defiant Gusau ignored World Athletics’ order and conducted a parallel election in Kebbi state on June 14.The election did not have represntatives of both the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Nigeria Olympic Committee in attendance.