Julius Ogunro, a former Special Assistant on Media to Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, former Minister of Sports has joined issues with President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Solomon Ogba for calling on the federal government to probe his former boss over the High Performance Centre in Abuja.
Ogba was reported to have called for Abdullahi to be probed for the High Performance Centre, which the former Minister started also alleging that Abdullahi was the first Minister of Sports to have stopped subventions to sports federations.
Reacting to Ogba’s call for the probe of Abdullahi, Ogunro said, “his allegations are bunkum and really do not deserve any attention.” In a press statement, made available to SIGNAL, Ogunro said, “It was obvious that Ogba never wanted the high performance Centre to succeed probably because he was getting grants from the IAAF to build a high performance centre in Port Harcourt. Perhaps, reason why he conspired to work against the HPC initiated by ministry of sports.”
He continued, “Abdullahi’s first choice for the position of technical director for the centre was Mike Afilaka, a Nigerian coach who was with the UK athletics team. It was Ogba who insisted that he preferred Americans for the job and was part of the team from Nigeria that interviewed various applicants for the position. Now he has made a volte-face.”
He accused Ogba of being ill-equipped to run Nigerian athletics.
“His other allegations are bunkum and really do not deserve any attention. The truth is, Abdullahi spoke up because of his interest and love for Nigerian sports. I mean, Ogba has led Nigeria to two disastrous outings in Rio and London, each time the performance was worse than the previous one. To make matters worse, the man does not have any clue or idea on what to do take athletics to the next level. His stock-in-trade appears to be insulting people and making wild allegations to distract attention from his incompetence and bad leadership.
“He should know that such underhand tactics won’t work anymore. Nigerians are wiser now. In fact, anyone with as much as passing interest in Nigerian athletics knows that Ogba is the problem of the sport and we will not make progress as long as he sits at the of the AFN table.
“On a personal note, I am however not disappointed by his recent actions. It is obvious that Ogba is an ingrate and fair-weather friend who spends 90 percent of his time as AFN President groveling at the feet of whoever the current Sports Minister is. When the APC won the general elections and there were speculations that Abdullahi would return as Minister, Ogba went into over-drive, calling the former minister and his associates, begging to be let in again into Abdullahi’s good books. But by then he was already known for who is – a two-face Janus!
“He really does not have any business running Nigerian athletics. His full-bodied frame and comportment are better suited for playing the role of a clown at children’s party. He should not only resign but apologize to Nigerians for his incompetence which has caused us two disastrous outings at the Olympics in London 2012 and in Rio, Brazil.”
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