The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has invited 33 athletes (17 men and 16 women) to camp ahead of the 13th African Games scheduled to hold in three Ghanaian cities of Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi, next month.
AFN’s list was released late on Wednesday evening, just as the chairman of the Jigawa Athletics Association, Mohammed Adamu, poured cold water on claims by his Gombe counterpart, Shuaib Ahmed Gara Gombe, that the AFN Congress may move to impeach AFN president, Tonobok Okowa.
The AFN held its African Games national trials in Asaba, Delta State, last weekend.
Olayinka Olajide, winner of the women’s 100m headlines the team that began camping in Abuja yesterday. They will remain in the FCT till the contingent’s departure to Ghana next month.
Other athletes on the list are sprinters, Blessing Ogundiran and Tiana Justina Eyakpobeyan, quarter-miler, Esther Elo Joseph, Patience Okon and Esther Okon.
Fakorede Adekalu, Enoch Adegoke, Israel Okon and Consider Ekanem are the male sprinters heading to the Abuja camp.
Samuel Onikeku, Teye Endurance, Solomon Aliyu, Kayode Yahaya, Deji Aliu, Mohammed Dabo and Gabriel Okon are among the coaches working with the athletes in the camp.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders have described the claim by Gara Gombe as the latest effort by some dissatisfied AFN members to cause confusion within the athletics family.
Gara Gombe was quoted by an online publication that about 15 members of the congress met in Kaduna over the weekend and have scheduled another meeting for Akure, Ondo State, in the coming weeks. It said their agenda was to impeach Okowa as AFN president.
However, Adamu said that Jigawa State was not aware of any such meeting.
“I am the chairman of Jigawa Athletics Association and the Chairman of all Chairmen in charge of athletics in northern Nigeria. I can tell you that no meeting of such held in Kaduna. There is no way a meeting concerning athletics will hold in the North without my consent. All they said are pure lies,” Adamu said.
