Chinese Embassy To Compensate Nigeria After Controversial Visa Rejection For AFN Athletes

The Chinese Embassy has begun subtle moves to compensate Nigeria for the huge loss suffered by a refusal of visa applications that botched an appearance of the country’s athletes at the recent World Relays Championship in Guangzhou, China.

This much was revealed by the director of Nigeria’s National Sports Commission (NSC), Engineer Bukola Olopade, who said the Embassy of China in Abuja was not to blame for the fiasco that snowballed two weeks ago.

Back then, the AFN scolded the Chinese officials in Abuja for failing to act on visa applications that had reportedly been submitted at the embassy since February, but Olopade has now shifted the point of blame to the Asian country’s consulate in the USA.

‘DG’ then doused the tension by revealing that a non-confrontational
and a peaceful tripartite resolution has been reached by the embassy, AFN, and NSC without blaming any of them.

Olopade said, “This is not time to blame anybody. Not you, not the AFN, not the commission. It was not the embassy in Abuja.” The director-general then went on to reveal reasons why the Chinese Embassy in Abuja had to be absolved of any blame, and the point of friction shifted to their office in the United States of America instead.

“It was not them because the embassy in Abuja worked together with the AFN to get the visas ready. However, the Chinese embassy in Washington DC frustrated our athletes; hence they couldn’t make it to the World Relays Championship.

“We have, however, agreed on a long list of things that we want to do in support of sports, the commission and the AFN,” Olopade enthused.

Sports247.ng