Secretary-General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Adisa Beyioku, has explained the reason for his recent letter to Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau about the Puma kits.

A statement by the Gusau group made available to The Guardian yesterday stated that Beyioku wrote a letter dated July 19, 2021, requesting that the Puma kits be released to Team Nigeria for athletes’ use at Tokyo Olympics ‘despite the sports ministry’s accusations against the Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau led board.’

The statement also revealed that the Department of Secret Services (DSS) has cleared the former president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria Ibrahim Shehu Gusau of any criminality in the PUMA contract signed by the former AFN board.

Nigerian athletes are in Tokyo with locally manufactured kits, but Gusau is pushing for the use of Puma to fulfill the contractual agreement he allegedly signed with the kits company a few years ago.

However, the AFN scribe, Beyioku told The Guardian in a telephone conversation from Tokyo, yesterday, that he actually wrote the letter to Gusau saying: “We have a new AFN board, and we are trying to balance international law. Before the AFN election we held in Abuja, I wrote the first letter to Gusau inviting him to the Elective Congress. He didn’t show up. And on July 19, 2021, I wrote to him about the Puma kits. I did so because we have to follow the international practice. Now, we have something to prove that irrespective of our differences, we still communicate with him on certain issues, particularly in accordance with the rules of World Athletics (WA). Gusau did not respond to the two letters I sent to him,” Beyioku stated.

MEANWHILE, an official of the Minister of Youth and Sports said yesterday that the Minister, Sunday Dare, would not be part of a contract of which the documents and kits have not been seen.

He said: “The agreement with Puma was signed by the duo of Gusau and Sunday Adeleye on behalf of AFN for five years without recourse to the board.

To date, both the Ministry and AFN have seen the Non-disclosure agreement signed. Payment made by Puma also were made into the private account of Dynamic Solutions (DSS), a company owned by Adeleye instead of being paid into the account of the AFN. The Ministry insists that before Team Nigeria wears any foreign brand, it must sight and be privy to any agreement signed. Neither Gusau nor the AFN has presented a copy or details of the contract signed by Gusau with Puma.

“The Ministry steered clear of the clouds over the Puma kits and went for local content as directed under the local content law of Nigeria. Ministry and AFN went for a local garment producer to kit Team Nigeria,” the official said.