Crises rocking the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) seem to be getting messier as the Vice-President of the federation, Azania Omo – Agege revealed that the President, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah lacked the constitutional power to suspend him.
As if that was not enough, the embattled Omo- Agege noted that Gen. Minimah has overstayed his tenure in the federation and hereby ceased to be president of the federation according to the constitution.
It could be recalled that few days ago, the boxing federation announced that Omo-Agege has been suspended by the Board for parading himself as the president.
Omo Agege who spoke through his media spokeman, Tayo Adeyemo from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he is currently attending a meeting of the Africa Boxing Confederation (ABC) said: “The President, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah has no power to suspend me because he has ceased to be president of the federation according to the constitution.
“Our constitution stipulates that you can only served for 12 years after which you disengage from the board. Gen. Minimah has been in the federation in executive capacity since 2010.
“Before the last federation election, we had agreement that he will handover to me two years after the election as the vice-president, but rather than doing that, he incited the federation board against me just because I faulted his decision to withdraw Nigeria from the IBA.
“How can you denounce Nigeria membership from IBA just because they have issue with IOC you now want to join a newly created Association. I stood against it because I know it will affect our boxers and we may end up not having boxers at Commonwealth, Olympic and All African Games,”
Furthermore, Omo Agege accused the president of inciting board members against him. “Gen. Minimah is violating our constitution. In the absence of the president, the constitution emphasized that the vice-president should step in but he choose General Ola to chair a meeting which was against my office.
“The meeting itself was illegal because there was no agenda. I told Gen. Ola he cannot chair a meeting when I am around. The president has no right according to the constitution to appoint a member to chair a meeting when the vice president is available. It is abuse of power and a slap on our constitution which we all vowed to defend.
“The media should know that Gen. Minimah is currently suspended by the International Boxing Federation and he should stop parading himself as president of the Nigeria Boxing Federation because his tenure has ended according to the constitution.”
