Re: 100m Exclusion: AFN, Ogba, Ministry Staff Fingered As Ofili Misses N80m On Contract

Re: 100m Exclusion: AFN, Ogba, Ministry Staff Fingered As Ofili Misses N80m On Contract

By Niyi Busari

Contrary to the opinion of Coach Lekan Soetan in his interview with BSN Sports, we have dug deep and discovered that Chief Solomon Ogba, former President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and First Vice President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, was not in any way responsible for the omission of Favour Ofili from participating in the 100m event at the 2024 Olympics.

This emerged after further investigations conducted by BSN Sports few weeks after the publication.

On 5th August, 2024, BSN Sports had published a story which emanated from an exclusive interview granted with Coach Lekan Soetan wherein he alleged that Solomon Ogba, AFN bigwigs and the NOC were behind the removal of Ofili from competiting in the 100m race at the 2024 Olympics.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) on their part had come out with proof that they did their part by submitting her name for the event. 

To be fair to Chief Solomon Ogba, only the President, Technical Director and Secretary of AFN are the persons who have access to the World Athletics in the event that there is anything to correct on the list already submitted.

Ordinarily, the submission of list of athletes that participate in the Olympics goes from the AFN to the Nigeria Olympic Committee which then sends it to International Olympic Committee (IOC) who in turn sends it to World Athletics (WA).

WA will then publish it where only the AFN has the password to access the list and make corrections, if necessary. 

With the chain of the process of the submission, as published, Ogba could not have in any way been responsible to effect any changes, being neither the AFN President nor the Secretary nor the Technical Director. 

A source who spoke with BSN Sports said, "Solomon Ogba cannot be the one to destroy what he has built over the years. He can't be part of those who removed Ofili's name from participating in the 100m race at the Olympics."

"What will he stand to gain from the removal of an athlete who hails from his state and for whom he contributed in building her career?", the source asked rhetorically. 

"For the avoidance of doubt, he is not the President nor the Secretary of NOC."

Checks also showed that Ogba has been instrumental to the discovery, grooming, nurturing and promotion of many top Nigerian athletes.