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Nigeria's sports minister, Solomon Dalung, accused the IAAF, the International Association of Athletics Federations, of "blackmail" after the body gave Nigeria an ultimatum to repay the money paid in error.
The federation said Nigeria had collected $ 130,000 in surcharges in 2017, but the country's officials have pushed back all efforts to recover the money.
Nigeria must now pay back in a few days or be punished, the IAAF said.
In a letter addressed to the president of the NPC, Ibrahim Gusau, and signed by the IAAF senior director, Governance, Jee Isram, the organization said that the NPC had been immediately contacted to report the anomaly on March 18, 2017 in order to repay the $ 130,000 incorrectly credited.
"If we do not recover the funds within this time, we will have no choice but to apply appropriate sanctions to your Federation," he said.
Analysts have expressed outrage over the late repayment and accused the Sports Ministry of altering the image of the nation.
Instead of paying back the money and ending the embarrbadment, officials exchanged blame and refused to talk about the issue.
A former board member of the Nigerian Federation of Athletics told PREMIUM TIMES that Sports Minister Dalung had authorized the payment of the money.
Speaking at the Okpekpe 2019 road race held Saturday in the state of Edo, Mr Dalung questioned the badertions of the president. IAAF, claiming that Nigeria had done nothing wrong.
"I think Nigeria was treated unfairly because the problem was treated and promoted as if there was wrongdoing on the part of Nigeria," Dalung said.
"Certainly not, grants were awarded in Nigeria on May 17, 2017. On April 19, the IAAF confirmed the deal. those of the IAAF, after two months, turned around and screamed wrongly that it was a mistake.
"I feel the rat in all this and I think that all this was orchestrated in order to blackmail Nigeria," the minister told reporters during Saturday's race.
He continued: "Even when we went there, we were not even convinced of the mistake: is there an error from Nigeria or that of the United States. ; IAAF?
"When did they realize that they had made a mistake when the transaction was confirmed? I made a mistake while transferring money … I realized less than 10 minutes later, I called my bank and I got the money back. Why did it take the IAAF two months to make a mistake? An international organization, very famous?
"I think that it is not money wrongly credited to Nigeria, but there is a calculated attempt to diminish and destroy Nigerian sports, otherwise, I do not see why they call it an error, we did not apply for a grant. "
Asked what the country would do at least to preserve it from the eventual ban, threatened by the IAAF, Dalung said:
"Ban for what? What did Nigeria do? What is the crime? Do we steal them money? Did we ask them to transfer money to us?
"They transferred money to us, they confirmed the transaction and then, after two months, they woke up.
"Does the IAAF tell us they are as disorganized as that? Where Nigeria is wrong, Nigeria will be recognized, but you can not wake up and realize that they have something to keep. We are not even convinced that there is an error, money has been sent to the gold relays and this has been done. Do they say that there was no relay in gold?
"I think those who promote them are trying to cry blue murder; I think they are just enemies of this country and we should ask questions, "concluded the minister.
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