The Integrity Unit of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), according to the BBC, is set to probe the administration of the immediate past president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Solomon Ogba when it asked reigning African triple jump king Tosin Oke to re-submit to it the 10-page statement he sent too the sport’s world governing body in December 2015 wherein he outlined his allegations of funds being withheld from athletes as well as other claims about lax doping controls and mismanagement – all of which he largely blamed on the then-AFN president.
In his letter, Oke also hoped that its recipient – IAAF President Lord Coe – would find his “experiences serious enough to ask the right
questions of the characters running the federation”.
The IAAF responded to Oke’s letter by sending a representative to meet the athlete, Ogba and the AFN’s general secretary in March 2016.
“Having spent time with both Mr Oke and his federation [president and general secretary], the IAAF representative left reassured that the other issues canvassed by Mr Oke would be resolved between them,” Huw Roberts, the IAAF’s Legal Counsel, told BBC Sport.
The IAAF did not confirm whether or not its representative had brought up the denial of funds at the meeting.
Oke feels the IAAF effectively asked the AFN to investigate itself. Oke had also told the IAAF how he had witnessed insufficient doping
controls in Nigeria.
“This year [2015], I saw an athlete enter the doping room claiming to be another athlete,” he wrote. “As ID is not asked for/checked, anything is possible.”
The IAAF says that according to its representative, the issue was not raised in March 2016 when he met both Oke and Ogba.
Oke maintains he did discuss wider concerns over doping in Nigeria with the representative, even if he did not directly address the matter above.
“The AFN, under my leadership, fought doping violations with every vigour we could muster,” Ogba told BBC Sport.
Oke is not the only athlete to be frustrated by the way in which Nigerian athletics is run, with several having switched nationality to compete for other countries in recent years.
Interestingly, Oke switched allegiance from Britain to Nigeria in 2009.