Ex-Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has insisted that the missing $150,000 IAAF grant was disbursed to the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Punchng report.
This is coming few days after a faction of the board alleged that the ex-minister should be blamed for the crisis rocking the AFN over the $150,000 IAAF money.
The ex-minister alleged that about 70 per cent of the grant had been paid to the AFN but was used for another purpose.
The IAAF had disbursed $150,000 as a grant to Nigeria instead of $15,000 and later sought a refund when it was realised that the money was paid in error.
But it was discovered that the money had already been spent few weeks after the money got to the AFN’s account.
The missing fund has led to division among board members of the AFN, who now hold parallel meetings, with one of the factions suspending the AFN president, Ibrahim Gusau.
When contacted on Friday, Dalung told our correspondent that the issue had been resolved, but insisted that the initial refund was “diverted.”
He said, “The AFN crisis is just an attempt to cover weak leadership. When my attention was drawn to it, I engaged them (IAAF) and they said we can pay twice. I released N39m, which is about 70 per cent of the amount and I gave it to AFN. AFN diverted the money.
“According to them, they used it for Asaba 2018. I was with the assumption that I have approved about 70 per cent to be paid to IAAF not until I started reading something else on social media.
“I don’t think the President of AFN should shy away from being investigated. The president should also allow the investigation on how the money was spent. Though we have resolved the issue amicably and about 80 per cent of the money has been paid.”
The Vice President of the AFN, Olamide George, confirmed that funds were paid from the Ministry of Sports to the athletics body but disassociated himself from how the money was spent.
“We are yet to get the whole details but we are sure of N39m given from the IAAF money, which was diverted. Investigation is ongoing,” he added.
The Technical Director, Sunday Adeleye, clarified that the funds released by the ministry were not used for personal expenditures.
He said, “What they (the ministry) are trying to say is that they have set up funds to refund the IAAF, that we came up to say that we needed money for Asaba. Can you have an international competition holding in Asaba and FG won’t be responsible for Team Nigeria? Fourteen days to the African Championships in Asaba, Team Nigeria didn’t have single underwear to compete with. We felt that was a pressing issue and to avoid embarrassment, we settled to tackle that urgently.
“The secretary and treasurer from the ministry have been the ones making payments. They are the two signatories. We spent N30m on kits and N9m for allowances. We are still asking for the balance to pay the athletes.”
