Another ‘Paris scandal’ hits Team Nigeria, Ofili’s name mysteriously missing from 100m list

Minister threatens to sanction culprits

Twenty-One years ago, Nigeria’s athletics recorded one of its biggest embarrassments on the international stage when the country’s 27-man strong athletics team to the 9th IAAF World Championships, in France returned with what was then tagged the “Paris scandal.”

The team, which had the likes of Deji Aliu, Uchenna Emedolu, Victor Okorie, Endurance Ojokolo, Mary Onyali, and Vivian Chukwuemeka, protested against alleged neglect by the Sports Ministry, which they accused of failing to provide training grants and other things that they needed to compete against their counterparts neck-to-neck.
 
From today, August 1, Nigerian athletes will be at the same venue to battle with their counterparts from across the globe for medals at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics. And like a country that never learns from its past, another crisis cropped up in Team Nigeria’s camp, yesterday morning. This time, it is the omission of United States-based sprinter, Favour Ofili’s name from the 100m list submitted to the organisers of the Olympics.
Ofili, a frontline 100m runner, raised the alarm in the early hours of yesterday upon discovering that her name was not on the list of competitors for the event.

She accused the AFN of deliberately omitting her name from the 100m event. “It is with great regret that I have just been told that I will not be competing in the 100m at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity,” she wrote in her X account.

Ofili ran 11.06 seconds at the Nigerian Olympics trials in Benin City, Edo State, in June to secure her place at the Paris Olympics. She has competed in more 100m races this