The last has surely not been heard of the legal battles confronting president of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, as members of the board of the country’s track and field governing body have dragged him before World Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), megasportsarena.com gathered.
So soon after Gusau celebrated a second victory in court, as he strives to keep himself in office as the head of Nigerian athletics, he now faces an even graver scenario that could see him hit with a life ban by the AIU – on account of an alleged breach of the sport’s code of conduct.
A press release by athletics spokesman, Oludare Esan revealed that heat is again on the widely embattled Gusau, across both the domestic and international fronts, after nine members of the AFN’s board submitted a petition accusing the former federal legislator of violating some articles of World Athletics Integrity Code of Conduct.
Dare disclosed that, in the said petition, Gusau was accused among other things of causing money belonging to the federation to be paid into a private account allegedly belonging to the technical director and athletes’ representative, Sunday Adeleye, who at the time was an elected member of the AFN’s board.
Gusau is also alleged to have disregarded the procedure for convening a Congress of the AFN and of amending the athletics federation’s statutes, as spelt out in articles 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 of the body’s constitution, much to the dismay of his board members.
It was further alleged that Gusau, without consent of the board, attempted to register the AFN as a limited liability company and is said to have cooked up minutes of a meeting among the members, during which he and Adeleye were purportedly elected trustees of the federation.
The media statement added in part: “The money in question was paid by PUMA as contractual fee for an equipment and licensing agreement reached with Mr Gusau and Mr Adeleye in July 2019, purportedly acting on behalf of the AFN, without the knowledge of majority of its board members.
“Mr Adeleye’s firm, Dynamic Sporting Solutions was unilaterally appointed by Mr Gusau to serve as consultant to the federation for the project, a clear case of Conflict of Interest and a breach of World Athletics Integrity Code of Conduct Article 3 (Integrity Standards),sub-section 3.3.5 (Conflict of Interests).
“If found guilty, Mr Gusau will be the second high profile African athletics official and member of a World Athletics member federation after Kenya’s David Okeyo to be slammed a life ban by the AIU.
“Mr Okeyo, for the records, was banned for diverting money meant for Kenya Athletics Association paid by sportswear and equipment company, NIKE into his private account for his personal use. Mr Okeyo who at the time was the Secretary General and Vice President of Kenya Athletics Association was banned for life in 2018.
“Mr Gusau is also accused of dragging the AFN to court, a decision frowned at by the Chief Executive Officer of World Athletics, Mr Jon Ridgeon in his letter to the Honourable Minister of Sports Mr Sunday Dare on August 27,2020.
“This, according to the petition, is also a violation of both the World Athletics constitution Article 84 on Disputes and Appeals and Athletics Integrity Code of Conduct’s Article 1,section 1.3 and sub-sections 1.3.1,1.3.2 and particularly 1.3.3 which states thus:
“All applicable persons will be deemed to have agreed not to bring any proceedings in any court or other forum that are inconsistent with the foregoing submission to the jurisdiction of the Disciplinary Tribunal.
“The AFN president is further accused of dishonestly presenting himself as the Secretary General of the AFN before World Athletics after he changed the password of the official email account of the federation thus preventing the Secretary General from performing his lawful duties as enshrined in the constitution of the AFN (article 8.7,section 8.7.2).
“This, the board members allege is not only a violation of the federation’s constitution but also that of World Athletics’ Integrity Code of Conduct Article 3 (Integrity Standards), sub-section 3.3.1.
“Mr Gusau, in the petition is alleged to have forged documents purporting to be proposals for the amendment of the 2017 constitution of the AFN and presented to a Congress in Awka in December 2019 convened in violation of Article 6.1.4 of the AFN constitution.
“The alleged forging of the documents presented before the illegal Congress, according to the petition by the board members is a violation of World Athletics Integrity Code of Conduct Article 3 (Integrity Standards), sub-section 3.3.1.”
