Paris Olympics: FG panel reveals officials responsible for non-registration of Ofili

An investigative committee set up by the federal government has identified the officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) whose inactions led to Favour Ofili‘s non-registration for the women’s 100 meters at the Paris Olympics. 

The panel was inaugurated by John Enoh, the recently departed minister of sports development, in September. The committee was tasked with probing Nigeria’s negative exposure at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.

Team Nigeria had a poor outing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning zero medals. In addition to the abysmal performance, the country also dealt with a handful of controversies at the Games.

The most prominent was the exclusion of Ofili from the women’s 100 meters race despite the athlete qualifying. Another was the revelation by Ese Ukpeseraye that she had to borrow a track bike from the German team to perform in the Keirin cycling event.

In a report released to journalists on Monday, Mumini Alao, the committee chairman, highlighted the panel’s findings and recommendations after its investigations.

The document said “conflicting evidence” showed that the omission of Ofili’s name “is traceable to any one of the following organisations: Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), World Athletics (WA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)”.

The committee added that Rita Mosindi, the secretary general of AFN, was “negligent in her duty of communicating to the Ministry of Sports Development and the Nigeria Olympic Committee information about Favour Ofili’s event status in a reliable and timely manner”.

The panel also faulted Samuel Onikeku, AFN technical director, for demonstrating “poor judgement” by not acting on information about Ofili’s non-registration “when he first got a ‘hint’ of the ‘rumour’.”

The committee added that Ofili’s situation might have been rescued had Onikeku reported or acted immediately on the information he received.

The report then recommended that the officials be penalised by the appropriate authority.

The committee said AFN should pay Ofili N8 million “for the disappointment and depression that she suffered on account of her omission”.

“The cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye, should write a formal apology to the Nigeria Cycling Federation (NCF) for the embarrassment that she caused the Federation and the Nigerian contingent to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on account of the unauthorised that she made on social media X (Formerly Twitter) about the bicycle that she used for the Cycling track event at the Olympics,” the report reads.

The committee presented its findings to ministry of sports on October 22, a day before President Bola Tinubu scrapped the ministry and transferred its functions to the resuscitated National Sports Commission (NSC).

Enoh then handed over the report to Shehu Dikko, the newly appointed chair of NSC, on October 30.