The Federal Government has ’nullified the appointment of Similaye Young Pepple as the Director General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development made this known in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the nullification of the appointment was part of effort to sanitise and restore order into the myriad of issues besetting the smooth operations of the AFN, which the Ministry said it considered illegal.
In the statement, signed by the Director of Press, A.B. Lere-Adams, the Ministry said in its “capacity of supervisory role over the National Sports Federations under its purview, set up a Ministerial Panel of Inquiry On AFN issues to investigate certain misdeeds and proffer solutions going forward.
“To this end, acting upon the recommendations of the Panel, the Ministry hereby makes it categorically clear that the Statue of the AFN and the National Sports Federation Code of Governance 2017, does not provide for the position of Director-General in any of the enabling documents.
“Against this backdrop, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) canceled and nullified the alleged appointment of Mr. Similaye Young Pepple as Director General of AFN, more so, not being supported by any extant laws or regulations whatsoever.
“The Code of Governance supports Secretary-General (who has already been duly appointed by the Ministry) and not the office of a Director General that dose not exist in the CODE OF GOVERNANCE.
“THE AFN, stakeholders and the general public is hereby advised to please note and any further transaction is at the individuals responsibility.”