THE World Athletics has confirmed Tonobok Okowa as the officially recognised President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.
WA confirmed Okowa’s choice in an email to our correspondent.
“World Athletics has received information from both elections and based on the information provided, we are now working with the board elected in Abuja.
“The meeting in Abuja was attended by the most voting members plus the National Olympic Committee, and is the board with whom the National Olympic Committee dealt with for the purposes of entering its team to the Olympic Games,” WA Head of Communications, Nicole Jeffery, said in a statement
World Athletics’ declaration puts an end to the leadership crisis that has rocked the AFN since 2019, which led to parallel elections in Abuja and Kebbi on June 14, which produced Okowa and incumbent Gusau as presidents.
Our correspondent further learnt that before the official recognition of Okowa as AFN president by WA, the global athletics body had sent the password for the official email of the federation and correspondence between both bodies to his camp. The Gusau-led group was previously in custody of the password.
WA told our correspondent on June 30 that it revoked the initial access of the email granted to Gusau as standard procedure after the election.
