- Safiu Kehinde
The World Athletics has rejected Favour Ofili’s allegiance switch from Nigeria to Türkiye.
Ofili’s bid to dump Nigeria and represent Turkiye at national level met a stumbling block at the track and field governing body rejected her application.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) , the WA’s national review panel turned down the application as it accused the Turkish Athletics Federation (TAF) of attempts to induce recruited athletes to switch nationality abruptly and primarily for mercenary reasons.
Prior to the ruling, Ofili and eleven other foreign athletes whose applications were submitted by Turkey to WA for allegiance switch were reported to have been granted Turkish citizenship with the country offering them lucrative deals.
The TAF’s recruitment of the athletes was allegedly aimed at strengthening the country’s national team ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
This would however backfire as the WA turned down the allegiance switch requests.
The WA ruled that approving the transfer would compromise key Council imperatives, including protecting the credibility of national representative competitions and preventing the systematic recruitment of overseas athletes for Olympic representation.
The athletics governing body added that the attempt also risks replacing local talent with imported competitors.
According to reports, Ofili began the process of her nationality switch in 2025 following her fall-out with the AFN.
The 23-year-old accused AFN of neglect and career sabotage.
Th allegation came after being repeatedly denied participation in two Olympics tournaments.
Ofili could not participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because the Nigerian Olympic authorities failed to inform her of the minimum drug-testing requirements for competing in the event.
She was against excluded from the Paris 2024 after an administrative error as the AFN failed to submit her name on time.