Video on athletes maltreatment fake news-AFN
By Nnamdi Okosieme
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria(AFN) has cleared the air on a video of four Nigerian athletes purportedly protesting over their malttreated at the just concluded Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
In the video, the athletes, Raymond Ekevwo, Soyemi Abiola, Godwin Ashien and Emmanuel Arowolo complained of the non-payment of their allowances and other issues.
The AFN, in a statement signed by Prince Adeniyi Beyioku, its Secretary General, said the video was recorded in 2016 at the IAAF World U20 Championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland and not at this year’ Olympics in Tokyo.
“To start with we did not present any men’s 4x100m relay team in Tokyo and none of the four athletes in the video was in Tokyo for the games. The two relay teams we presented were the mixed and women’s 4x100m. Whoever is behind the tagging of the video to the Tokyo Olympics is not only disingenuous and cynical but has also shown himself to be completely bereft of ideas,” Beyioku said in the statement.
Beyioku decried the alarming the rate at which all manner of fake news is spreading in Nigeria and called on the Nigeria Police to investigate the source of the video and bring those responsible to book.
The AFN Secretary General said the video was circulated Beyioku to embarrass government and the new board of the AFN led by Tonobock Okowa.
“The Minister has made athletes welfare top on the list of his agenda and has demonstrated this by providing palliatives for the athletes during the Nationwide lockdown ocassioned by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the payment of allowances owed Nigeria’s U-18 and U-20 athletes since 2019 by the former leadership of the AFN”, Beyioku stated.
He also referred to the AFN president’s speech during his inauguration in June this year when he said athletes and coaches welfare will also be top of his priority list.
The video of the four athletes is coming on the heels of the video of Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, a Nigerian athlete who qualified for the final of the Shot Put event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which went viral on the Internet.
In the video made by the athlete himself, Enekwechi, a three-time national champion and a two-time African chamlpion, he was seen washing the only kit provided him for the Games by the AFN. Alongside the video was the caption:
“When you made the Olympics finals but had only one jersey”.
The video embarrassed Nigeria’s sports authories with many Nigerians angered by their country’s poor performance at the Games, calling for the heads of Nigerian sports administrators.
The anger of Nigerians was stoked by the Enekwechi video as it hit the Internet not too long after 10 Nigerian athletes had been disqualified from participating in the Tokyo Games following the inability of Nigeria’s athletics authorities to carry out the required ‘out of competition tests’ on them.
Nigerian athletes protesting their disqualifation from participating in the Tokyo Olympics
The spectre of the ten athletes carrying placards and protesting on the streets of Tokyo had been humiliating for Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora.
