The Arbitration and Harmonization Committee set up by the Minister of Youth and Sports Solomon Dalung on Thursday, upheld elections in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Weightlifting Federation, thus returning Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau to the board as AFN President.
Also, inauguration of the boards of all National Sports Federations has been scheduled to take place on Friday, July 21st at the National Stadium in Abuja at 2pm.
This was stated in a press release by the Dalung’s Media Assistant, Nneka Anibeze on Thursday.
Anibeze noted that some crucial decisions were taken by the Arbitration and Harmonization Committee comprising the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which led to the delay of the bye elections held on Thursday at the Abuja National Stadium.
In some of the major decisions taken, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau’s elections from the North West zone where he emerged from, and subsequent election as President of the AFN were upheld.
It would be recalled that the Appeals Committee set up to consider and decide on all appeals arising from the National Sports Federations Elections, nullified the AFN Presidential Election held in Abuja on June 13th, and called for fresh elections.
The election was initially billed to hold on July 7th, then postponed to July 12th, and then pushed further to July 20th. However, in a sudden twist in which the Arbitration and Harmonization Committee upheld the AFN Presidential election, signifying that no bye-elections were held in the AFN.
The Committee also upheld Patrick Estate Onyedum’s election as South East representative to the AFN board as the suit of his challenger, Charity Opara Asonze was dismissed because she had served a 5-year ban for drug use by WADA and was not eligible to contest as stipulated in the guidelines.
Former AFN President Solomon Ogba was also returned to the board as Sponsor/ Ex-officio, while the case of Hamid Adio was dismissed. Rosa Collins and Brown Ebewele were earlier reinstated as representatives of NAWIS and Technical representatives.
The case of Haruna Bako and that of Charles Yayock of the North West Zone were both dismissed for lack of merit.
In Weightlifting, the election of Hon Yahaya Mohammed as President was upheld as well as that of the Vice President Emeka Daniel Nwankwo. There will be no fresh elections in that federation.
The Presidential election in Judo was upheld. The committee ruled that bye election in the South west should take place.
There will also be no fresh elections in Taekwondo as Ex-officio and Philanthropist Representative, George Ashiru was reinstated as a board member, while Margaret Binga would take on the mantle of leadership on the board.
However, the Harmonization Committee ordered fresh elections to be held in Gymnastics as the Electoral Committee members petitioned that the conduct of the previous elections were held under duress. New electoral committee members will be appointed for the election.
