The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has been urged to invite former technical director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Mr Samuel Onikeku, for questioning over his revealing testimony published by the Ministerial Investigative Committee (MIC) which probed Nigeria’s negative exposure at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
AFN board member and veteran sports journalist, Dare Esan, gave the advice, saying the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the 100m event of the Paris Games exposed Nigeria and Nigeria’s athletics body in particular to international ridicule and wants the IGP to invite Onikeku to clarify some of the things he said to the Investigative Committee.
Onikeku was indicted by the Investigative Committee and recommended for sanctions for his ‘poor judgement’ by not ‘reporting the ‘hint’ and ‘rumour’ respectively that he heard about the non-registration of the athlete, Favour Ofili, for the 100 meters event.’
According to the report of the Investigative Committee, ‘top officials of the defunct Ministry of Sports Development and the NOC held their Final Delegation Registration Meeting (F-DRM) online on 14th July 2024. By his own admission, Samuel Onikeku first got the ‘hint’ about Ofili’s exclusion from the 100 meters on ’11th or 12th July, 2024.’
‘Perhaps if he had shared his information with the AFN secretariat, the AFN President or other Board members, intervention proceedings might have commenced during the F-DRM on 14 July to address Ofili’s omission rather than wait till Favour Ofili came around to discover the omission by herself very late on 28 July, 2024.
‘In fact, the AFN Secretary General expressed surprise when the Technical Director reconfirmed the ‘hint’ and ‘rumour’ that he heard to our committee. The Secretary General said the Technical Director never told her about it.’
‘Technical Director Samuel Onikeku is a Chief Superintendent of Customs, a senior officer in the Nigerian Customs Service. He said he didn’t report what he heard about Ofili’s omission because he didn’t want to be involved in any trouble and that, as a para-Military officer, he only obeys the command that he is given.’
‘I am calling on the Inspector General of Police to invite Mr. Onikeku to clarify some of the things he told the Investigative Committee which are quite revealing,’ said Esan in an interview with sportsnow.com,ng.
Esan wants the former chairman of the technical subcommittee to reveal to the Police the trouble he did not want to get involved in and which prevented him from reporting the ‘hint’ and the ‘rumour’.
“Mr. Onikeku should also be made to clarify the ‘command that he was given and who gave the command,’ added the AFN board member.
Esan however refused to comment on a report in a section of the media quoting the AFN President, Tonobok Okowa as saying Onikeku and Victor Okorie (the former chairman of the Performance subcommittee) should retain their positions as technical and performance director of the AFN.
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