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Minister of Sports Development, Senator Owan Enoh, has disclosed that the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) failed to contact World Athletics over the omission of Favour Ofili’s name from contestants for the 100-meter race at the Paris Olympics.
Senator Owan Enoh said this following Ofili’s cry out on Friday, that NOC and Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) failed to resolve the inclusion of her name in the list of contestants.
Enoh said he must find out who removed Favour’s name from the list. He re-emphasized that the Nigerian sprinter qualified for the race and registered accordingly, but her name was removed.
In a statement on Friday, Senator Enoh said, “The 100m race got off to a start today (Friday), sadly without Favor Ofili. I was on the matter until the early hours of today, with the hope of giving Nigerians something to be happy about.
“From the moment I stated my position on this, officials of the NOC haven’t slept, they have been on their toes. The NOC President Engr Habu Gumel and his team kept vigil, traversing between the Director of Competition, the Technical Committee and the World Athletics.
“I have been duly informed that some other countries have similar issues, and these aforementioned bodies do not want to open a floodgate that would become difficult to manage.
“Howbeit, I am not concerned about other countries. My interest is with my own country Nigeria and who is responsible for the non-listing of Favor Ofili.
“Furthermore, I have been briefed that World Athletics submitted, that when the final list was published in July by it, AFN should have called its attention to the omission of Favor Ofili’s name. This still doesn’t address the issue.”
He asked, “At what point did her name drop out of the 100m race? Who’s responsible for this? What’s the motivation behind this? What’s the trail of communication from AFN to NOC and to IOC and/or World Athletics? All these are questions that must be answered immediately after the Olympics.”
The Sports Minister appealed to Ofili to concentrate on the remaining races she would contest. He promised that justice must be served.
“For now, I appeal to Favor Ofili to refuse to allow this to distract her concentration in the remaining races for which she has been listed (I’m in touch with her on this). And for the rest of Team Nigeria, particularly the Athletics team, let them stay motivated to win,” he said.
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