The Appeals Committee set up by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, to consider and decide on all appeals arising from the National Sports Federations Elections, has nullified the Presidential Election of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), held in Abuja on June 13th.
This followed the hearing of Petitions and Appeals arising from the National Elections, which commenced on Monday, June 26th, and continued till Thursday June 29th.
While making a formal statement on its findings with members of the media on Friday, June 30th in Abuja, the Appeals Committee announced that 20 petitions were received from 11 federations.
It would be recalled that elections into the AFN board were marred by a lot of controversies, with several candidates vying for the position of President, being disqualified from standing for elections on the said day.
Ibrahim Shehu Gusau eventually emerged the new President of the AFN after defeating former African Triple Jump Champion Rosa Collins by 48 votes to 3.
However, following the petitions that arose against the backdrop of the elections, the Appeals committee nullified the AFN Presidential election and called for a new election to hold on July 7th.
The Athletics Federation had 6 petitions. Brown Ebewele, who had initially secured a seat on the board after winning the Technical and Coaches’ election, discovered on the eve of the Presidential elections that his name had been replaced with Gad Onumaegbu’s, who did not stand for the Coaches’ election.
He filed a petition to the Elections Petition Committee and has been returned to the board after the committee ruled that his petition was valid.
Representative of the National Association of Women In Sports (NAWIS) on the board, Rosa Collins was also returned to the board by the Appeals Committee, following a successful petition.
Collins, who was the first member elected into the AFN board after winning the NAWIS election, discovered on the day of the Zonal and Presidential elections, that her name was replaced with Gloria Obajimi’s, who was not a candidate at the NAWIS election.
A fresh election will be conducted for the South East zone into the AFN board.
The newly elected National Sports Federations boards are to be inaugurated on Monday, July 10th, 2017.
