Members of the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) have disassociated themselves from the failed attempt by Engineer Ibrahi Shehu Gusau to register the federation as a Limited Liability Company at the Corporate Affairs Commission.
AFN president, Gusau, had sometimes in January 2019 engaged the services of a law firm, Flourish Chambers, to register the federation as a Limited Liability Company under Part C of the Companies and Allied Matters act, C20, LFN 2004 at the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The move however backfired as the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development did not give its consent when approached by the CAC.
Documents received from the Commission revealed that Gusau and the recalled Athletes Representative on the board of AFN, Sunday Adeleye, were named trustees of the federation.
Some board members of the AFN told our correspondent they were shocked by the revelation.
“There was never a time the issue of registering the AFN founded by government in 1944 was discussed at any of our board meetings since we were inaugurated in 2017 and up to the time the attempt to register the federation with the CAC,” said former Nigeria international and Olympian, Gabriel Okon who represents the South South zone on the board of the AFN.
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“We have asked the Secretary General who by law (the AFN constitution) must be privy to all decisions made by the board if there was any documents supporting the decision and he told us nothing in the files of AFN supported the decision,” added Rosa Collins, a former Nigeria and Africa triple jump champion and record holder who is also a member of the AFN board.
“We have gone through the documents submitted to the CAC that purportedly came from the federation and we discovered they were all cooked up. The CAC requires that the trustees must be elected by the association (Federation) and that copies of the minutes of meeting(s) where the trustees were elected must be submitted with the proposal for registration. The board didn’t discuss the registration and couldn’t then have elected Gusau and Adeleye as claimed by Gusau,” added Olamide George, the member representing the South West zone on the board.
“This is purely forgery. The leadership of AFN has acted dishonestly and this is one of our arguments to the Athletics Integrity Unit,” George further said.
Nine voting members of the board signed the petition sent to Athletics Integrity Unit a fortnight ago and if Gusau is found guilty, he may be banned for life from all athletics activities.
