By Martin Odiete
Interim President of the Nigerian Boxing Association, Azania Omo-Agege has been re-elected 1st vice president of the Africa Boxing Confederation, (AFBC).
The election which place in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia also saw the emergence of Mr Berhanu Eyassu Wossen, from Ethiopia as the new President of the Boxing Confederation.
Omo- Agege had been acting as the interim president of the Africa Boxing body following the suspension of the former president Cameroonian Bertrand Mendouga this year by the IBA ethics commission.
Addressing the audience, IBA President Umar Kremlev called on delegates to unity. “We are here today to unite all of Africa and I am happy to see a united team. To take our business to the next level, we need more events where athletes can have the opportunity to win money. I see a lot of countries in Africa that need our support and we have been extremely supportive with them.”
“National federations should be more active in asking for financial support. Today I would like you to elect your new president so that one of the candidates can begin the immense work that awaits us at AFBC for the future of boxing on the continent,” said President Kremlev.
On his part, newly elected AFBC President Wossen promised more support for the continent: “I promise to find financial support for our continent. Let’s think about our future together because we must be united.”
“This is the dawn of a new era of unprecedented success in African boxing and I want to radically change the face of boxing on our continent,” said last October when he was president of the Ethiopian Federation boxing.
Meanwhile, Omo-Agege told our correspondent from Addis Ababa that his re-election is indeed a blessing to Nigeria maintaining that he would ensure that Nigerian boxers benefits from his position as the 1st vice president the African boxing body.
He thanked the Nigerian Government for the opportunity given to him to be able to contest for such great position in African boxing.
“Let me thank my Minister, Nigerian Minister of Sports, Senator John Owan Enoh for the supports accorded me in my effort to contest in this election. You may wish to know that if he had been against my contesting in the election I would not have been able to make it. So, for this, I say a very big THANK YOU to my Minister,” he concluded.
