Business
AFN and Premium Trust Bank do not have any Contract. – Olopade
AFN and Premium Trust Bank do not have any Contract. – Olopade
NewsReport Nigeria reports that the AFN board members have been instructed to set aside their disputes and focus on creating a strong team for the country, especially as the countdown to the 2023 World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Hungary, gets underway.
AFN’s Chief Marketing Consultant and the Chief Executive Officer of Nilayo Sports Management, Chief Bukola Olopade, said Wednesday that a dispute between some board members over fictitious sponsorship money was bad for the federation.
There has been uneasy disquiet within the AFN family since last week following the online publication of a plot to convene Congress to perhaps plot the removal of President Tonobok Okowa over issues concerning money realized from sponsorship.
But Olopade, who spoke from London yesterday, cleared the air about sponsorship money paid to the AFN.
“It is unfortunate that some of the board members are accusing Okowa wrongly over issues he knows nothing about. I heard this rumor of some of the members scrambling for sponsorship money before I traveled out of Nigeria, and I have expressed my disappointment with some of them.
“In the first place, AFN does not have a contract with Premium Trust Bank; rather, it was my company, Nilayo Sports, that signed a sponsorship deal with them (Premium Trust Bank).
“As the Chief Marketing Consult to AFN, we (Nilayo Sports) signed a three-year sponsorship on behalf of Premium Trust Bank with the AFN. The money that comes from the sponsorship deal is not given to any individual. It is tied to competitions.
“In other words, the AFN will have to write to Premium Trust Bank, through Nilayo Sports, for money to be released for major competitions, including the World Athletics Championship.
“Nilayo Sports Management is not happy with the unnecessary rumor of a scramble for sponsorship money going on within the AFN board. We are doing our best to position the AFN to meet its financial challenges, and some people are trying to make things difficult for us. It’s not good. As far as I am concerned, Chief Tonobok Okowa usually goes the extra mile before he gets money to sponsor athletes for competitions. I doubt he will be able to get all his money back. He needs encouragement from the board members,” Olopade clarified from London.
Premium Trust Bank, in the last year, has impacted so much on the nation’s athletics, particularly with the sponsorship of the duo of Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume, as well as the bank’s role during the last National Sports Festival held in Asaba, Delta State.
