Six Months After, NATO Officials Still Waiting To Be Paid For Officiating Work At National Trials

Nigerian athletics officials who officiated at the Nigeria Track and Field Championship held last July in Benin City are yet to receive their allowances six months after.

The officials working under the umbrella of National Association of Technical Officials, NATO, had petitioned the AFN President, Tonobok Okowa towards the end of last year, pleading that its members should be paid, arguing that some of them borrowed money to pay for transportation to Benin and for hotel accommodation.

An online report in December last year brought the issue to the front burner again, accusing the AFN of not responding to the pleas of these officials.

NATO was forced to issue a press release after Rita Moshindi, the Secretary General of the AFN drew the organisation’s attention to the story.

In the press statement signed by its Secretary General, Gama Yakubu James, NATO expressed its anger at AFN’s obvious disregard for its Save Our Soul letter to the AFN and said it was hoping the Federation would pay the allowances before the end of 2023.

‘Truly, the Association remains aggrieved and disappointed by the failure of the AFN to pay up the allowance as promised by the President of the Federation.

‘We are of the hope that the AFN shall do the needful by paying up the outstanding amount before the year runs (out),’James wrote in the press statement.

A NATO member who officiated at the competition told our correspondent Thursday morning that they are yet to be paid.

‘No letter from AFN stating when they will get paid, nothing,’ said the member who didn’t want to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

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The member however revealed the NATO leadership has really been up and doing as far as getting the attention of the leadership of the AFN on the matter is concerned.

‘What is surprising however is the silence of our representative on the board of AFN on the matter. It is disheartening that our so called representatives has neither been heard nor seen to have done anything about the plight of our members. We are waiting for people like him to come back in 2025 to seek for our votes,’ added the NAATO member who lambasted the AFN for prioritizing self preservation.

‘We thought payment of our allowances will be number one on the list when AFN received payment of the sponsorship fee from Premium Trust Bank about two weeks after the Championship.

‘The national trials is one of the events the Secretary General said the Premium Trust Bank Sponsorship covered in the AFN audit committee report which I have read.

‘So, how come they borrowed almost 16 million naira from the money much later and paid for other items not covered by the sponsorship like paying for an athlete’s return ticket that is almost 4 million naira when what they owe us is just less than 5 million naira as well as refunding an individual 40m naira for events not covered by the sponsorship,’ said the NATO member.

Our correspondent got across to Tafida Gadzama, the first Vice President of the AFN but he said only Okowa and Ms Moshindi can say why the AFN will owe Officiating Officials for six months.