Athletics Federation of Nigeria Says They Won’t Block Ofili’s Transfer, Describes Her As Hard To Manage

Tonobok Okowa, president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), has said that Favour Ofili is “old enough to decide what’s best for her” and won’t be stopped from changing national allegiance if she chooses to do so.

This comes after reports emerged on Sunday, June 22, claiming the 22-year-old sprinter had written to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to request a nationality switch, allegedly due to frustrations with the AFN during recent international events.

However, the World Athletics (WA) website still lists Ofili as a Nigerian athlete.

Reacting, Okowa stated he had only learned about the development through the media and that the AFN has not received any formal communication from either World Athletics or Ofili herself.

“If this is true, it is sad, disheartening and painful but we are yet to get any official statement from her or any correspondence from World Athletics (WA), on her request. She is a promising athlete with huge potential,” the AFN president said.

“The AFN and the National Sports Commission (NSC) have been working hard to get athletics and other sports in the country back on track and to show that both bodies are matching goals, objectives and words with action. Favour Ofili had already been paid her training grant for this year.

“From the moves we have been making to get her fully prepared and back to the big athletics family, and her response, it’s also clear that she had been preparing and working on her newfound Turkish love. She is old enough to decide what’s best for her, but it’s painful and hard to take for us; however, we will not stop her. She is still our child, sister and daughter.”

Okowa stated that Ofili has made it difficult for the federation to contact her since the Paris Olympics, noting that all efforts to reconcile with her have been unsuccessful.

Despite acknowledging her as one of Nigeria’s top athletes in recent years, the federation described Ofili as “difficult to deal with.”

“Despite our own inadequacies, on several occasions she shunned the national trials, and even when she came, she selected the events she preferred to compete in,” the statement reads.

“No doubt Ofili is one of best our athletes in recent times but she is difficult to deal with.

“The AFN has its issues, but we are getting along well with other top athletes and are still thriving within the system. We wish her well in whatever she is doing and wherever she is going.”

Ofili competed for Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but her performance was affected after the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) excluded her from the women’s race despite her qualification. Nevertheless, she competed in the women’s 200m, advanced to the final, and finished sixth.

She was also one of ten Nigerian athletes who missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because the AFN failed to meet essential anti-doping compliance requirements.