Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games gold medallist, Ruel Ishaku, has been elected President of the Nigeria Para-Powerlifting Federation.

Ishaku, a bronze medallist at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games and gold medallist at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, was unanimously endorsed by the board of the federation on Friday.

The 53-year-old replaces former president Queen Uboh-Idris, who was indicted, impeached and banned from all powerlifting activities last month.

Uboh-Idris had been engaged in a long-running dispute with both the board and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development over her handling of the federation’s programmes and finances.

She had alleged board members ganged up against her because she refused to “share” sponsorship funds meant for the athletes and the World Para-Powerlifting World Cup which was hosted in Abuja last month.

But several petitions were raised against her to the sports ministry and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, necessitating the setting up of an Investigative and Disciplinary Committee to investigate the petitions against her.

Uboh was impeached after she was indicted by the five-man Investigative and Disciplinary Committee who determined that she had breached several provisions of the National Sports Federations Code of Governance.

The committee report found that Uboh-Idris failed to disclose sponsorship incomes and donations on various programmes of the federation to the board and operated accounts other than that of the federation for NPPF business in contravention of various provisions of the NSFs Code of Governance.