Izuchukwu OkosiOrganisers of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday revealed that their headquarters in Paris had been raided 24 hours earlier by the country’s national financial prosecutor, Parquet national financiers.
Parquet national financiers is the French equivalent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria.
The PNF, according to a source close to the organisers, are said to be investigating an alleged favoritism which also involves event management firms
“Paris 2024 confirms that the PNF (Parquet national financier) visited its headquarters on Wednesday Oct. 18 and obtained all the information it requested,” the organisers said in a statement.
“Paris 2024 is cooperating fully with the investigation, as it has always done.”
A judicial source said the raids were part of a probe opened into suspicion of “illegal taking of interest, favoritism and concealment” in the award of several contracts ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
Anti crime agencies raiding the offices of sporting federations ade becoming a common theme with several high profile corruption charges under probe.
Several qualifying games are ongoing across the world ahead of the Olympic games in selected sports.
The 2024 Games will hold between 26 July and 11 August 2024.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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