The former technical director, Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria, Anthony Asuquo has exposed what he feels is the rot of gymnastics under the leadership of Prince Kelvin Ehrunmuwse.
Asuquo told www.aclsports.com that he resigned from the board before the federation decided to suspend him for reasons best known to them.
He alleged that the president is busy including his brothers in the affairs of the Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria instead of doing the right thing.
He said, “One of the reasons why I resigned from the board of the Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria is that for the past three years, there has been no grassroots or national program sponsored by the Federation. Instead the president is either fighting Anthony Asuquo or Chairman of Lagos State Gymnastics Board, Moyo Ogunseinde and any other person who are try to get the federation to move forward.
“The President told the world that I have never represented Nigeria as an athlete, fine. The President took his brother to the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast; his brother was not a national/head coach of the state. The brother does not have an age group or basic coaching certificate on gymnastics, now you instructed your brother to represent the country in the highest competition, is he taking Nigeria for a joke?
“Secondly, he nominated his other brother (Otasowie Ehrunmuse) who does not have a gymnast in the country his name to lead the delegation to the 2019 World Gymnastics Federation in Stuttgart, Germany and also fielded a gymnast to the world championship. Immediately the world body entered his name, I was contacted by the world body to identify the gymnast and I informed them that I know nothing about the gymnast.
“It is a big shame that he took his brother who does not have an idea of coaching but a judge and asked him to go as a coach. Is the president encouraging visa racketing or trying to send his brothers abroad in the name of Nigeria Gymnastics?”
He further said, I resigned from the board of the Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria on the 6th September, 2019 and then the federation called me for a meeting and tried to reconciling both parties (I and the President). The immediate past sports minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung and the Special Adviser to current sports minister, Mary Onyali are both aware of the reconciliation meeting and both advised me to attend.
“I thought the meeting was to address salient issues in the federation bothering from having good programs (grassroots) in the federation and the extortion happening under our very nose instead a supposed indefinite suspension was given to me in November and I resigned in September due to the irregularities happening in the federation”.
He alleged that the President of the federation, Prince Kelvin Ehrunmuwse condemned 2019 African Games champion, Uche Eke in the past when he took him to a championship three years ago in South Africa.
Asuquo told www.aclsports.com that the current board is yet to organise any grassroots/national programmes since inception challenging the current to name the tournaments and places where they took place.
He said, “The President talked down on Uche Eke when he traveled with me to South Africa in 2016. The brother Otasowie Ehrunmuse that went to world gymnastics championship in Germany condemned Uche Eke in the past too.
“He claimed that Uche Eke and some of my athlete went to South Africa to do jamboree and now Uche Eke is the ultimate to them because he has won gold and bronze medals at the 2019 African Games in Morocco.
“More so, the president has not put up any program for progression and physical preparation for the gymnasts. Secondly, I do not want to belong to any party of collecting funds from gymnasts, the coach that went to the 2018 African Youth Games his name is Ben Alonge. He alleged that the president told them to tender money and coach refused to drop funds; this became a serious issue”.
