Second vice president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Rosa Collins, has reminded the minister of sports development, John Enoh, to fulfill his promise to set up an independent probe panel to look into the running of the Federation including its audit committee report.
Collins, a former Nigerian international and African Games gold medalist, said the Sports Minister promised an independent probe panel to look into the AFN audit committee report that indicted its president Tonobok Okowa after his meeting with the board of the federation in late February.
‘The Sports Minister promised to set up an independent panel to probe activities of the federation as well as the report of the audit committee set up via a resolution of the board in September 2023,’ said Collins, who also revealed their initial reservation about the Minister’s plan to set up a probe panel.
‘I remember Mr Dare Esan, a member of the AFN board asked the Sports Minister how his ministry can probe one of its staff, Rita Moshindi serving as the Secretary General of the AFN and who recommended to be deployed by the audit committee.
‘Mr Enoh assured us it would be an independent panel that will take a dispassionate and unbiased look into the books of the federation. Almost two months after, we are still waiting for the Sports Minister to make do his promise. His words should be his bound as we don’t want to believe insinuations he is giving protection to some people in the federation’.
Collins recalls the confession by Mrs Moshindi that she has been generating money to run the federation’s secretariat through competitions without approval and without indicating it in the budget she submitted to the audit committee.
“She put it down in black and white in a letter to the board. What more proof does the Minister and the Sports Ministry need to suspend her pending when investigations into the affairs of AFN are concluded,’ she asked.
