AFN VP, Rosa Collins, wants official exposed for ordering Udodi Onwuzurike to snub National Trials

Athletics Federation of Nigeria second Vice President, Rosa Collins, has called on the federation’s leadership to reveal who in the AFN asked sprinter, Udodi Onwuzurike to snub the recently concluded National Trials in Benin.

Udodi’s father, Chris Onwuzurike said in a report on Facebook that the AFN asked him and his son to stay in Lagos upon their arrival in Lagos where the relay teams will join them for the trip to Lome, Togo.

A report in The Guardian newspaper also confirmed the Facebook story but Collins, a former Nigeria track and field international and 1995 Africa Games champion and record holder in the triple jump says the AFN could not have asked the athlete and his father to shun the National Trials.

She also queried the sincerity of the claim by Udodi’s father.

‘I vividly remember the AFN issued a statement a few days to the championships in Benin city that athletes who failed to show up at the competition will not be eligible for selection for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary next month.

‘Who in the federation could have given a counter order to the athlete? This is a question Okowa needs to answer as the decision has generated heated debates outside,’ said Collins in an interview monitored on Wednesday.

‘AFN should tell us if he is comfortable with turning the federation to a laughing stock, to a body that does not respect its own rules. He should let us know if he is just a figure head president who is being told what to do by a former two-time President of the federation under whose tenure indiscipline reigned supreme, where athletes were given preferential treatment and a few were made to be larger than even the AFN.’

Collins believes Udodi’s father is also not telling us the whole truth.

‘It is clear from the statement reportedly made by the boy’s father that the boy has been told to just fly into Lagos and wait for the relay teams.

‘Tell me, how can a serious athlete fighting for World Championships qualification arrive in Lagos on the day the competition started in Benin?

‘The 100m event was scheduled to be concluded on the opening day and the 200m the second day. How can a serious athlete travelled for about 15 hours to compete less than 24 hours later? It is obvious the man is being economical with the truth,’ added Collins who pleaded with Okowa not to turn the AFN into a circus.

‘The National Trials in Benin was turned into another AFN Golden League. The circus in Benin was a poor imitation of the Nigerian track and field championships we competed in in the 1990s when A.K Amun was president of the federation.’

Three time African and two time Nigeria 100m champion, Olusoji Fasuba had in a Facebook post asked for the name of the AFN official or board member who gave the instruction that is a clear violation of the rules set by the federation for the championships