Sports association election: Oshodi, Makanjuola win, Adeniji-Adele loses

The Lagos State Commissioner for Sports, Barrister Waheed Enitan Oshodi, on Tuesday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, emerged the winner of the zonal election of the South West into the board of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation.
Oshodi won by five votes to one to return to the board he served in the last four years as a co-opted member.
It was, however, a sad tale for the immediate past Commissioner for Sports in Lagos State, Honourable Ademola Adeniji-Adele, whose bid to get into the board of the Nigeria Boxing Federation was rejected by delegates from other South West Zone, who voted in relatively unknown Rotimi Rasheed, a former Chief Medical Director of Ondo State Specialist Hospital as the zonal representative on the Boxing Federation board.
In athletics, Lagos State Athletics Association Chairman, Prof. Tunde Makanjuola, defeated three other candidates to emerge the zonal representative on the board of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria.
Makanjuola, who emerged winner at his fifth attempt, polled three votes ahead of Olumide George from Ondo State, who polled two votes, while Atlanta Olympics double medallist and reigning African record holder in the women’s 400m, Chief Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo, polled only one vote.
The fourth contestant, Samuel Fatunla, Nigeria’s only internationally recognised track and field statistician, was betrayed by his own state (Ekiti) delegate, who reportedly voted for the Ondo State candidate.
The action of the Ekiti State delegate shocked observers at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium), venue of the elections, who felt he also betrayed the Action Congress of Nigeria by voting for a candidate from an opposition party.
It was obvious hours before voting started that Makanjuola would emerge winner after the Lagos and Oyo State commissioners for sports were locked in a meeting to agree on a consensus candidate.
In the North West, North East and North Central zones, the trio of Ibrahim Gusau, former track and field international; Fidelis Gadzama; and former Kwara State Accountant General, Tunde Abdulrahman, were elected unopposed into the board of the AFN.