Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, first Vice President Tafida Gadzama says the board of the Federation was never informed of the borrowing of $15.9m
naira to ‘prosecute’ the World Athletics Championships until almost a month after when the five-man audit committee was set up to probe the finances of the federation.
Gadzama said in a press statement that the board would never have approved such a borrowing because the money was meant to sponsor competitions for home based athletes.
‘Thank God for the audit committee, we would never have been told how the Premium Trust Bank Sponsorship money was spent on events and individuals contrary
to the terms of agreement with the bank,’ said Gadzama who calls the action Embezzlement of fund.
Gadzama says ’embezzlement refers to a form of white-collar crime in which a person or entity intentionally misappropriates the assets entrusted to them. In this type of fraud, the embezzler attains the assets lawfully and has the right to possess them, but the assets are then used for unintended purposes.
‘This is a clear breach of the fiduciary responsibilities placed upon the leadership of the AFN.’ said the African and Olympic Games gold medal winner.
The AFN first Vice President revealed there was an initial request to the board by the Secretary General, Rita Moshindi, seeking for approval to use the Premium Trust Bank sponsorship money to pay some debts not connected to the sponsorship agreement between the AFN and Premium Trust Bank.
‘ Rita (Moshindi) sent a request to the board on Monday July 24, 2023 to grant the release of N69,951,560 to pay some debts from the Premium Trust Bank sponsorship money. She wrote thus: ‘Please, kindly grant the release of the following monies as debts owed to individuals from the Premium Trust Sponsorship money being payments of refunds.’
‘Some of the requests were for the payment of N20,000,000 for the Region II Senior Athletics Championships held in Lome, Togo in July, N6,000,000 for flight tickets for Ghana Relay teams to the Lagos Athletics Series event also in July; N950,000 for Laptops Core i9 1tb and of course the N40,000,000 paid to Tonobok Okowa as refund for some events he claimed to have sponsored.
‘Of course we found this ridiculous and a clear case of embezzlement and diversion of funds and we rejected the request.
‘We thought Okowa and Rita (Moshindi) got the message and that the N70,000,000 that accrued to the federation from the N100,000,000 yearly sponsorship fee was intact and would be used to sponsor some road running events before September 2023, especially considering the fact that the federation played politics with the Cross Country competition in Taraba because of me.
Read Also: Odegbami canvasses support for Super Eagles’ success in Cote d’Ivoire
‘We were thus surprised to find out from the Secretary General that part of Premium Bank Sponsorship money was used to pay for accommodation and visa fees for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
‘She also told the audit committee in writing that N15,900,000 was also borrowed to finance the trip to Budapest,’ added Gadzama.
The 1997 African U20 400m champion reveals some AFN board members are compiling a report on the diversion of Premium Trust Bank sponsorship funds.
‘We are coming up with a comprehensive report on how the Premium Trust Money was mismanaged and how a few members have used their official positions for personal gains which is a form of corruption. We will release the official list sent by the AFN to the Hungarian embassy detailing how family members of a few AFN officials were listed for visa procurement under the tag, ‘accompany congress delegate’.
It is a real can of worms and we are determined to birth a new and responsible AFN where athletes and officials will be the main focus,’ said Gadzama.
