Team Nigeria sprinter Favour Ashe has predicted that more track and field stars will dump Nigeria for other countries in the near future after the 23-year-old allegedly switched allegiance to Qatar.
News of Ashe’s alleged switch surfaced online on Sunday, a few days after he spoke about the Middle Eastern country’s training camp in South Africa.
Ashe becomes the second Nigerian athlete reported to have initiated a switch of allegiance after 150m world record holder Favour Ofili in 2025.
He is said to be joined in Qatar by Sunday Akintan, who recently impressed during the indoor season with a time of 6.48s. Other athletes, including some expected to be in camp, are also reportedly plotting their switches.
Ashe is believed to have been in Qatar for the past five months after enduring a difficult 2025 season. One of those disappointments saw him disqualified in the final of the 100m during the last National Sports Festival in Abeokuta.
“The Qatar federation is taking us to South Africa to begin our season there. This is something Nigeria will never do,” Ashe was quoted as saying by The Guardian Nigeria.
“There are many young Nigerians in the Qatari team training for the Olympics, and they are well catered for.
“Those who have the opportunity to leave are not looking back; soon, Nigeria will be hit by an exodus of athletes. Some are even ready to run for other African countries that can offer them good compensation and opportunities to compete all year round in events that appeal to them.”
World Athletics will not verify Ashe’s purported switch, but the governing body does not reveal the identity of an athlete if an application to switch allegiance is ongoing.
Meanwhile, the president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Tonobok Okowa, said the body has not received any official correspondence about Ashe’s move and will investigate the matter in the coming days.
A controversial athlete, Ashe was arrested in Alabama over multiple counts of theft and fraud, as stated by the Auburn Police and published by a Columbus-based media outlet (WTVM).
Then, at 21, Ashe was charged with four counts of fraudulent use of a debit/credit card and two counts of theft of property, third degree,” as stated by the media outlet.
In the police statement, it was stated that the victim of Ashe’s robbery at the 100 block of West Magnolia Avenue gave them the theft report on 4 February. Ashe allegedly amplified the offences by using the stolen cards for fraudulent transactions.
The authorities issued a $9,000 bond to Ashe and are currently holding him at the Lee County Jail.
According to Boldsports, Ashe is not the first Nigerian athlete to be arrested in recent times, as five other Nigerian athletes also faced similar issues in 2022.
They are Toluwani Adebakin, Emmanuel Ineh, reigning African Games 100m champion Raymond Ekevwo, Mercy Abire, and Aniekeme Etim, who were indicted and charged with wire and mail fraud in the US.
Adebakin and Ineh had earlier both been convicted of fraud and faced a possible 10-year jail term after they pleaded guilty to “violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1957, for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activities, collectively sending tens of thousands of illicitly obtained proceeds to fraudsters in Nigeria as part of a larger mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.”
Abire went on to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces 20 years in jail.
