A former senator representing Kaduna Central district at the
National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has blamed officials of the Federal Ministry of
Youth and Sports Development for the embarrassment faced by Nigeria’s athletes
at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He said this after German sportswear manufacturing company
Puma announced the termination of their kits contract with the Athletics
Federation of Nigeria.
The company blamed the termination on the failure of
Nigerian athletes to wear the kits in line with the provisions of the contract.
Earlier, it was reported that the contract
termination comes a few hours after a trending video showed Nigeria’s shot put
medal hopeful, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, washing his jersey ahead of his final
game at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The caption in the video indicated that the athlete was
given one jersey for the competition.
“When you made the Olympic Finals, but you only have one
jersey,” he wrote.
Also, eyebrows were raised following different attire worn
by members of the Team Nigeria contingent in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Shehu Sani posted on Facebook, “PUMA donated these $2.7
million kits freely to Nigeria and offered to financially reward our
medal-winning athletes. Our officials rejected them and preferred to use public
funds to purchase from other sources. Now our Athletes are embarrassed in
Tokyo.”
The German company announced the termination of the
four-year deal in a letter dated August 4, which was signed by PUMA’s Director
Manuel Edlheimb and made available to our correspondent by the Director-General
of the Ibrahim Gusau-led AFN, Siminilaye Pepple.
“We are referring to the licensing and sponsoring agreement
signed between our company and your federation.
“As a direct consequence of the recent developments,
particularly at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 and pursuant to clauses 9.2 and
7.3 of the Agreement, we hereby terminate the Agreement with immediate effect.
“PUMA especially declares to be discharged from any or all
obligations towards all stakeholders involved and reserves all rights against
these entities and individuals,” Edlheimb was quoted as saying in the statement.
The AFN under Gusau had entered the $2.76m deal with Puma on
July 24, 2019, in Doha, but the controversial contract is one of the major
causes of the crisis rocking the AFN, which had split the athletics body into
two factions, with both Gusau and his vice president Sunday Adeleye accused of
sidelining other members of the board during the signing of the deal.
The sports ministry insisted that Team Nigeria athletes were
not going to use Puma kits at the ongoing Olympic Games despite the Gusau group
sending them to Tokyo.
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