Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) board members have denied receiving the sum of $150,000 (around N52 million) as annual grant from the world athletics ruling body, IAAF.

The IAAF was said to have mistakenly paid $150,000 to the AFN instead of its $15,000 annual grants to member federations for the year 2017.

IAAF accountants later noticed the error and promptly asked the AFN to refund the money, but the present board members said they had no knowledge of such payment.

According to the AFN Vice President, Olamide George, most of the board members know nothing about the payment.

In his words via Guardian, George said: “I think the money came just when we were taking over from the past administration.

“But the truth is that it is only the AFN secretary who knows how he received the IAAF money.

“If the money was paid into AFN account, it could have gone through the Treasury Single Account (TSA). I am sure the secretary used his personal account to collect the money from IAAF, which I think is wrong.

“The secretary was transferred from AFN before, but the sports minister (Solomon Dalung) brought him back. They should tell Nigerians what happened to the IAAF money.

“I cannot be part of AFN board and all sorts of things are happening behind the scene. We must not fold our hands until IAAF sanctions Nigeria because of this issue.” he added.

On his part, the AFN Technical Director, Sunday Adeleye also corroborated George. He said: “I can tell you categorically that since we came on board, no single money has been paid into the AFN account.

So, it will be difficult for me to speak on this IAAF $150,000 grants.” he concluded.